La Rochelle embracing Fota boot camp as they go 'Fireman Mode' for quarter-final

La Rochelle’s players holding a sign which greeted them at Cork Constitution’s Temple Hill Ground.

RONAN O’GARA AND his La Rochelle staff were out for dinner in Cork city on Monday night when the city’s lord mayor, dining at a separate table, popped over to say hello.

Kieran McCarthy, incidentally accompanied by a French dignitary, was quick to inform O’Gara’s crew that their boss has the Freedom of Cork, an honour bestowed upon the former Munster out-half in 2017.

Naturally, O’Gara’s French coaches were slightly more impressed by this status than the likes of Donnacha Ryan and Sean Dougall, who had doubtless heard it all before.

But it was one personal touch from several that have made Leeside feel like home for the back-to-back European champions before they head up the N8 for another epochal clash with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday.

“Jeez, the first thing, when we came into the airport, it was incredible,” says La Rochelle forwards coach Donnacha Ryan. “When we were going through security, the lads didn’t have to hand their passports into the two boys at the desk. The French boys were kinda shocked by that level of familiarity.”

They would have been relieved to have skipped at least one formality: La Rochelle’s travel itinerary for this weekend’s fixture saw them fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg, from Johannesburg to Paris, shuttle across to Paris Beauvais Airport, and then fly to Cork, where they’re staying at Fota Island Resort.

They make no bones about the fact that it took its toll early in the week: Ryan had intended to take the squad over to nearby Glounthaune to watch a hurling league match between Erin’s Own and Midleton on Monday evening but La Rochelle were forced to push training into the evening for the simple fact that players were tired.

Still, this Cork stay ultimately earns Les Rochelais an extra day’s preparation versus the turnaround if they had headed for home. In any case, it’s not exactly a shock to the system: it’s part of French rugby culture to pack up and partake in a week-long ‘stage’, or a boot camp, ahead of an especially significant fixture, like an abridged version of a boxer’s training regimen for a title fight.

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Such a trip feels especially important for this season’s La Rochelle, whose time together at full complement has been sparse on account of the World Cup — and influential captain Gregory Aldritt’s consequent sabbatical — as well as the Six Nations.

ROG’s Rochelais have stuttered and spluttered their way through both domestic and European campaigns but as Sud Ouest journalist Benjamin Deudon noted on Wednesday’s episode of The 42′s Rugby Weekly Extra podcast, Aldritt and titanic lock Will Skelton have played together this season just five times — and La Rochelle have won all five, including their only three away victories.

Ryan says: “I think the lads… Because we haven’t spent a lot of time together since the World Cup, for the boys, you’re kind of straight back into it, in ‘Fireman Mode’.

“So, just to kind of come to somewhere different in a long season, this breaks up the monotony.

“The lads have a great mentality about them in terms of creating new experiences with each other and going to different places. That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day.”

Cork, then, made sense on several levels. For starters, Fota is well equipped to host an elite sports team: the Crusaders were blown away by it during their pre-season visit for the Páirc Uí Chaoimh game, and even Munster head coach Graham Rowntree lamented that his side never get to stay there after he visited Rob Penney and co. for a drink on the eve of February’s friendly.

Zoom out slightly and O’Gara knew — as did Ryan, having lived there for 10 years — that Cork would embrace La Rochelle to an extent that would surprise their players. The enemy of your enemy, and all that.

Plus, with an organisation for whom the concept of family is so thematically important, a stay on Leeside provides a fresh twist. O’Gara has something approaching an encyclopedic knowledge of his players’ backgrounds and support systems; this week has been a chance to flip that and lend the squad an insight into their coach.

“We got to train in Temple Hill yesterday,” Ryan says, referring to his side’s session at Cork Con’s home ground on Monday. “There were a lot of old coaches up there: Donal Lenihan was up there, Brian Hickey and the rest.

“So, obviously we get to share a few stories with them and introduce them to the players and staff from La Rochelle.

It does give a bit of colour to the person — who you are and where you’ve been brought up and played. I think that can only strengthen bonds between guys and it’s a big part of what we drive, or what ROG drives.

“When you kinda get to know where a guy grew up, you get to know him a lot more too. It’s great to see the boys… they love seeing ROG in his home environment.

“The boys have been made to feel welcome here and they’re looking for any stories that are going round so they can just knock a bit of craic out of us.

“We’ve had a lot of people offering any bit of help we may need, y’know? Whether it be medical stuff… ‘If there’s anything you need, let us know.’”

A few La Rochelle players have already met up with Munster equivalents for food this week, while others have allegedly added holes to the golf course down in Fota.

While relaying as much, though, Ryan is quick to stress that this isn’t a school tour: La Rochelle are in Cork for business, and it’s about to become a whole lot more serious at an Aviva Stadium which is tracking towards a sellout.

“I think the games sometimes come with a bit of a health warning”, Ryan says of his side’s rivalry with Leinster, “because they can be quite tense.

“That’s good for us because the boys love testing themselves against the top players in the world.

“It’s obviously a completely different animal as well. There’s change in staff. Players have come in as well. We’ve different challenges this time around.

“It’s been documented a lot in Ireland about the intensity of their linespeed,” Ryan adds of Jacques Nienaber’s influence on the eastern province.

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“You could see that a lot in their game against Leicester with intercept tries and there was a few they were unlucky not to grab, as well, and go the length of the field.

“We played Leinster back in the Deflandre earlier in the season and you could see there was a big defensive appetite there to get off the line and put pressure on. That’s pretty much the South African model and Jacques mentioned before he had a 16-week (14-week) plan to implement into the Leinster defensive system.

“Look, I had the pleasure of being coached by Jacques in Munster, and Rassie [Erasmus]. Very smart guys. They know what they’re about and it’s certainly the one clear thing you can see: that their defensive linespeed is very good — and at the same time, their breakdown work in defence is very good too.

“So, it’s something we have to make sure we put a bit of focus on this week.

“I think this weekend we can put in a good performance — put in a performance we’ve been trying to get for the last number of months since the boys have come back from the World Cup.”