Leinster 26-27 La Rochelle: Magnificent Dublin comeback sees French club clinch repeat Heineken Champions Cup title

A magnificent comeback from 17 points down saw La Rochelle become back-to-back Heineken Champions Cup winners with a dramatic 27-26 win over Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. 

Leinster were 17-0 ahead inside 12 minutes, as hooker Dan Sheehan (two) and wing Jimmy O'Brien scored tries in a stunning start to the game which also saw La Rochelle scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow sin-binned.

The French club hit back through a Jonathan Danty try, but fell 23-7 behind after a couple of Ross Byrne penalties, before Danty's midfield partner UJ Seuteni crucially scored a second try late in the opening half to bring the visitors within nine points.

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Ronan O'Gara's charges then proceeded to dominate virtually the entirety of the second half, displaying superiority at scrum and maul time, but Leinster's superb defence just kept them out for prolonged spells after Antoine Hastoy had cut the gap to six points.

That was until replacement tighthead Georges Henri Colombe forced his way over with eight minutes to play, with Hastoy converting for a one-point lead - completing the largest comeback in European Cup final history in doing so.

Leinster did have a final chance to win it once Danty was sin-binned for a high tackle, attacking hard at the La Rochelle try-line in the closing minutes, but just when it seemed as if the Irish province would perform a role reversal of La Rochelle's late success in Marseille last year, prop Michael Ala'alatoa was red carded for a dangerous, out-of-control clearout on Colombe, allowing La Rochelle to clear the danger and deservedly celebrate wildly.

An incredible start to the contest saw Sheehan score the earliest Champions Cup final try ever recorded on 40 seconds, off the very first lineout, as a cute move saw No 8 Jack Conan burst through the middle of the set-piece to claim a delivery late, before storming on and passing out to his hooker in a manufactured, elongated one-two to score.

An outstanding James Lowe 50:22 put Leinster back into the right area shortly after - the wing executing it to perfection, with the ball rolling off the park inches from the corner flag - and five minutes after their barnstorming opener, the hosts had a second try as O'Brien finished well in the corner as Leinster attacked at phenomenal pace off a scrum in the La Rochelle 22.

La Rochelle responded by stringing their first notes of the final together in midfield, but less than four minutes after O'Brien's try, the visitors were reduced to 14 players for 10 minutes, as Kerr-Barlow was sin-binned for tackling opposite number Jamison Gibson-Park while not 10 metres back, after the Leinster halfback had taken a quick-tap penalty.

Mere moments later, Leinster had a third try as, though the hosts' lineout attack surrendered possession through Ross Molony, a costly Paul Boudehent knock-on deep in the 22 opened the door for Gibson-Park to produce a clever long pass out to the unmarked Sheehan, who needed only to claim and fall into the space ahead of him to score.

Like with Leinster's second try, Byrne missed the difficult touchline conversion off the post, and though difficult kicks, those four points would - as improbably as it seemed at the time - come to be highly significant.

While still a player down, La Rochelle finally composed themselves enough to consolidate at 17-0 behind, scoring through the powerful Danty eight minutes after Sheehan's second, and with Kerr-Barlow still off the park - the centre bouncing Garry Ringrose and powering past Robbie Henshaw to get over. The Top 14 outfit also first illustrated their supremacy at the scrum in the phases prior, after Lowe had knocked on by his own try-line.

Yet, two straightforward Byrne penalties off the tee within a six-minute spell saw Leinster pull to a 16-point lead, as soft and costly breakdown indiscretions came to bite La Rochelle: first flanker Levani Botia failed to release before jackalling, then hooker Pierre Bourgarit came in at the side - albeit the second penalty should first have seen Ringrose penalised for the same offence.

Stupidity by Bougarit to continue holding the legs of Josh van der Flier on the ground while a La Rochelle maul continued to rumble forward by the Leinster 22 saw their next foray end, but Botia conjured up his second brilliant breakdown turnover of the half to stop Leinster in their tracks.

Off the back of a 35-minute period where nearly everything went against them, La Rochelle again displayed their spirit and mettle when Seuteni pierced through the Leinster defence with two minutes of the first half to play off a lovely Hastoy draw-and-pass, and after a prolonged 12-phase spell of pressure in and around the Leinster 22, with heavy carriers Will Skelton and Uini Atonio to the fore.

Three minutes into the second period, La Rochelle came so close to getting in for a third try, as Seuteni strode clear on a devastating line-break after an initial juggle, but was just cut down by Hugo Keenan before he could go over.

Leinster were soon penalised for offside, prompting captain Gregory Alldritt to choose to take the points and narrow the gap to six points via Hastoy - but that strike was almost immediately wiped out through Byrne down the other end, off the back of an incorrect scrum penalty call by referee Jaco Peyper.

A sequence of poor Leinster kicking from the usually reliable Gibson-Park, Byrne and Lowe - either side of another Hastoy penalty, with Henshaw penalised for going off feet - continually put them under pressure, with no fewer than eight kicks going out on the full (2), being charged down (1), sliced (2) or landing harmlessly into La Rochelle possession (3).

Against a side as talented as La Rochelle, it set in motion a second half in which Leinster were firmly on the back-foot, and rescued only from falling behind earlier through a combination of their immense defence and La Rochelle handling errors.

Sheehan effected one magnificent breakdown turnover seven metres from his own try-line, Van der Flier stripped possession from Alldritt within the 22, a rampant La Rochelle maul was collapsed legally off a tenth 22 entry for the visitors, Danty knocked on another attack on the cusp of the red zone, Henshaw stole breakdown ball just before Danty should have been rewarded with a penalty, while another La Rochelle maul attack ended due to an obstruction call.

Alldritt turned down a straigthforward penalty to narrow the gap to three points in favour of a kick to the corner when Caelan Doris went off feet, and with eight minutes to play, Colombe tumbled in after his skipper had previously been held up, with Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher also sin-binned for repeat team infringements - a ploy to try and stem a La Rochelle maul which was eating metres at will. When Hastoy converted, La Rochelle led for the first time in the match.

Leo Cullen's side would surely have broken through for a match-winning try in the closing minutes had Ala'alatoa not needlessly flown in with a tucked arm at the breakdown, knocking Colombe out cold with the hosts camped by the try-line after Danty's yellow card for a high tackle on Doris, but as it was, La Rochelle saw out the final minute-and-a-half professionally, with two superb lineout throws to the tail, giving way to an ecstatic pitch invasion from the French bench.