By his own admission, it took Ronan O’Gara quite a while to get over what happened to his La Rochelle side at Aviva Stadium four weeks ago.
That 40-13 hammering by Leinster put an end to the French club’s ambitions of landing a hat-trick of Champions Cup titles, emulating the feats of a star-studded Toulon outfit in the previous decade.
The quarter-final loss was a ‘dark day’ for the club, O’Gara told reporters in France after the humbling defeat in Dublin.
Unsurprisingly, the ex-Munster out-half remains an engaging presence in media conferences. He communicates with the local press in excellent French and doesn’t hold back.
The French domestic season is an arduous slog. The league campaign starts in early September and runs deep into June.
There wasn’t much time for La Rochelle squad to dwell on their European exit, but O’Gara admitted that he was struggling to move past it.
‘I’m in another world this week,’ he admitted after the Leinster loss. ‘I’m honest, I’m not aware of everything that’s happening around me. I have a good staff that helps me move on. But if you move on too quickly, you’re a liar. There are some very important lessons to be learned from this.
‘Maybe depression gets deeper with age and years but that’s how it is.’
Unsurprisingly, a much-changed squad fell to Castres later that week. La Rochelle steadied the ship with an impressive 27-17 win against Toulon the following weekend, however, as O’Gara’s troops returned to the top six of the Top14 table.
And this is La Rochelle’s sole focus now. A top-six finish will secure their place in the playoffs, but O’Gara and Co will be chasing a high league position in order to secure a few games at their Stade Marcel-Deflandre fortress, a stadium which was sold out for the 90th consecutive time when Toulon paid a visit recently.
When it comes to the structures of the play-offs, there is a world of difference between finishing at the summit of the table and sneaking into the top six as a lower seed.
‘No point, after everything we’ve done, finishing anywhere from third to sixth, because thaT kills you,’ O’Gara explained in his newspaper column last year.
‘How? First and second places miss the ‘barrage’ (third v sixth, fourth v fifth), giving you a free weekend. A free weekend at this stage of the campaign is nirvana, it’s gold.
‘It gives you the chance to breathe and reload for that final season push. It might not seem much but being 160 minutes away from a Top 14 final and 240 minutes away is so much more than the 80 minutes. When the air gets thinner and the minutes get harder, those 80 minutes are precious.’
This time around, however, La Rochelle would be happy to sneak through because, as things stand, they are far from guaranteed a top-six finish. It’s been a patchy season for La Rochelle on the home front. They have won 11 out of their 22 league ties and currently sit fifth in the table.
Consistency has been a problem. There have been impressive results against the likes of Stade Francais and Clermont. There have been some poor days, too, with La Rochelle slipping up against strugglers such as Bayonne, Oyonnax and Perpignan.
Fighting on two fronts has taken its toll. If there was any positive to take from their Champions Cup exit, it’s that they can now solely focus on domestic duties.
And there is a big prize at stake. This club has never captured the coveted Bouclier de Brennus. Last season, they came agonisingly close to landing a first league title in the club’s proud history only for Romain Ntamack to conjure a brilliant moment of magic to snatch yet another title triumph for Toulouse – their 21st.
‘We still remember last year’s failure (in the final against Toulouse),’ O’Gara said earlier this season. ‘The motivation is there. We have never won the Top 14, so the motivation will come back on its own.’
Despite an up-and-down season, O’Gara knows his team, when all the frontliners are fit and firing, are a match for anyone in this competition. But there is a slight sense of now or never about this current playing group. O’Gara has assembled a stellar squad from across the globe.
A clutch of them are in the veteran stages. France tighthead Uini Atonio is 35 and wanted to hang up his boots after last year’s World Cup but was convinced to play on for another year by Les Bleus boss Fabien Galthie.
Powerhouse Fiji flanker Levani Botia, who recently marked his 200th appearance in the black and yellow jersey, is also 35. Wallabies wrecking ball Will Skelton is 32. Tawera Kerr-Barlow is 33 while veteran full-back Brice Dulin is pushing 35.
O’Gara, who is contracted with La Rochelle until 2027, will have to start a rebuild at some stage. He has made some shrewd signings, with Ultan Dillane arriving from Connacht and Jack Nowell arriving from Exeter Chiefs.
There is no shortage of young French prospects in the La Rochelle ranks either, with big things expected of Hugo Reus, Louis Penverne and Alexandre Kaddouri in the coming years. The big question is whether this group can sign off with a Top14 title to their names?
Their remaining run of fixtures is quite daunting. This weekend, they face in-form Bordeaux on their home turf.
O’Gara’s side have a pivotal home clash with Pau on May 18. They then have to travel to Toulouse on June 1 before another tough game against visiting Racing 92 the following weekend.
Every league point is precious from now on and there are no easy ones on offer in the coming weeks. It’s make or break time for ROG.
