benching 7-1 is ‘the biggest compliment’ for ex-Springboks coach, says O’Gara

La Rochelle, deprived of its second row Will Skelton, injured in the ankle, will innovate by placing seven forwards on its bench during the reception of Leinster on Sunday in the Champions Cup. Facing the other co-leader of group 2, the Rochelais will line up a rather classic starting XV, given the absences due to injuries of their Australian colossus Skelton (ankle), center Jonathan Danty (knee) and hooker Pierre Bourgarit (shin), and suspensions of the other hooker Tolu Latu and the versatile Teddy Thomas. But it is at the level of the bench that the Irish manager of the Maritimes Ronan O’Gara innovated with a bench of seven forwards, as the South Africans of Jacques Nienaber, current coach of Leinster, had done during the Cup of world 2023.

At a press conference, the Irish manager justified this choice of a 7-1 bench: “The Leinster coach is Jacques Nienaber who won two World Cups with South Africa and the biggest compliment when you play against his team is I think going 7-1. But there are other reasons for this choice, I have suspended (Teddy Thomas) and injured (Jonathan Danty), I thought a lot about putting Hugo Reus on the bench with his left foot. But apart from that, there is more competition up front and the matches in January are played a lot up front. My choice for this match is to strengthen up front, with the possibility of having Paul Boudehent, “Judi” Cancoriet, “Leps” Botia, Matthias Haddad as a center or winger.