Ronan O'Gara has backed his La Rochelle team to rise to the challenge as they enter the Leinster 'lion’s den’ to defend their Heineken Champions Cup title.
The former Munster and Ireland out-half led his team to a shock victory over tomorrow’s opponents 12 months ago in Marseille, the French Top14 outfit feeding off the energy of a partisan crowd to strike late for a 24-21 win.
The tables are now turned with Leo Cullen’s side at home in Dublin as they bid to win a first title since 2018 and draw level with Toulouse with five tournament wins.
A full house is expected at the Aviva Stadium for tomorrow’s 4.45pm kick-off (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).
"That’s the beauty of sport, that's the fascination, on paper it seems fine," said O’Gara when asked about what difference the venue makes.
"We were all told that in the Matmut [Atlantique], the stadium for the Bordeaux where the semi-final was [against Exeter], there would be plenty of La Rochelle fans but sounds good but then you go there and 'oh wow' it's something else.
"And it gives energy and a life to our team, it's going to be opposite tomorrow for our guys.
"Some of our guys are experienced and they will thrive, some guys might shrink a bit. You hope guys like Greg [Alldritt] and Brice [Dulin] will bring them along.
"Leinster are going to have purple patches for sure. It's just how we manage those pressure moments will decide how the game goes.
"Over the 80 minutes there should be enough of an opportunity for us to play rugby, to impose our game, that’s what we’re banking on as opposed to taking the home crowd on full on, you know.
"We going in there tomorrow and we'll either grow or shrink.
"What I've seen from my boys is they love it, they care for each other, they've prepared all season for this game and it's to be attacked than be feared. As a player I would have been damn nervous, as a coach I'm extremely excited about it.
"Where else do you want to be? It's a Heineken Cup final in Dublin and we're ready to go."
Stade Rochelais have beaten Leinster in their previous two meetings in the last two seasons, but O’Gara rejected the suggestion that he has the magic formula when it comes to getting one over on his old rivals.
"I don’t look upon it like that, genuinely," he told RTÉ Sport after naming his team, which contains two changes from the semi-final .
"Two games over whatever, 60-game period is pretty irrelevant to me.
"I think as Greg said the big focus, what we’re trying to do is... we do have fun but we’ve high standards.
"We have ambition to do something special in these players’ lives. I’m not really interested in having a job. I love what I do, we love what we do, we get chance tomorrow to play for each other in the final of a European Cup.
"It doesn’t get any better, doesn’t get any bigger, we're in the home of Leinster, it's a really daunting task but a great challenge but one we want to succeed in."
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Watch the Heineken Champions Cup final, Leinster v La Rochelle, on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Saturday from 4pm, follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport or listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
