Ronan O’Gara didn’t source or sign ‘10-ton truck’ Uini Atonio for La Rochelle but he would if he could have.
The New Zealand-born France star is one of the world’s biggest professional rugby players and has played his entire career for just the one club.
At 6’6” and 25-and-a-half stone, Atonio has racked up 222 appearances for Stade Rochelais since being recruited for the 2010/11 PROD2 season.
So while ROG didn’t sign Atonio, he would have immediately recognised what he had on arrival in France.
John Hayes, with whom he played internationally and provincially from 1998-2013, had a similar CV — a one-club man making 217 Munster appearances, standing 6’4” and weighing 20-and-a-half stone.
Naturally, ROG was sold on Atonio from day one.
By contrast, Leinster’s Andrew Porter, who will pack down opposite the Frenchman in the Heineken Cup final this Saturday, is 6’0” and 19-and-a-half-stone.
Porter’s tale, having switched from tight-head to loose-head this season, begins with having played against Saturday’s opponent in the Six Nations in February.
“I played against him previously, against France, and it didn’t go our way on the day and we’ll be looking back to the La Rochelle semi-final last season as well,” says the Irishman of two losses.
“We know exactly what their strengths are, all we have to do is play smart.
“That’s a huge thing about us. It’s about learning from those days and boxing smart and a positive mindset will be huge.
“We might not be the biggest team in Europe but we have some of the smartest players in the world playing.”
If Porter is talking a good game he sure is entitled to, having played his way into the Ireland team as a tight-head and gaining 2021 Lions recognition before missing the Tour through injury.
The switch to loose-head didn’t see his international career miss a beat, even if Ireland and Leinster’s scrum have had some difficult days this term.
There was that Six Nations scrum-nasty at Twickenham, while Leinster conceded nine penalties at the set-piece in Porter’s last two games.
Porter admits to being concerned about the numbers.
“Particularly because it’s kind of my side of the scrum as well.
“It’s not a huge kind of a pack thing that we are looking at, I’m trying to fix those mistakes that I have made in those last games against Leicester and Toulouse.
“It’s little small things. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel here, you are trying to kind of fine tune a few things and that’s what you will really need against La Rochelle this week with the pack that they have.
“We’ll have to be on top of our game in that sense and myself in particular.”
Is this just teething problems because of the switch from no3 to no1?
“I suppose it could be down to that moving across where every day is kind of a learning day, in a game and in training as well.
“Every game you play you are playing against different opposition that scouted you so they know exactly what to look for.
“Also, every game you play is going to be different and every scrum you hit is different in that sense as well so you need to be able to learn out on the pitch as well.”
That Saturday’s Heineken Cup final can be boiled down to the importance of the front-row collision is something of a throwback.
Modern rugby has changed the emphasis here, figures showing changing laws and resulting guidelines have had the net effect of de-powering scrums by close to 40 per cent since the game went professional.
Yet La Rochelle, having what L’Equipe describes as a team of ‘wide-bodied’ aircraft in reference to the pack and the two huge centres in place, are something of a nod to the style from those days.
With O’Gara adding the difference between last season’s runners-up campaign and this term being: “A new appreciation for putting the group before the player which may not have been in the past — so now we’re getting a group that cares for each other which is very important.”
If this is very vintage Munster then the presence of Atonio has even more significance.
“We played all our careers together and we won our first caps together on February 19, 2000,” says O’Gara of Hayes.
“We shook hands as a ritual before every game and to get the Bull’s hand is a nice gesture. He’s a proper, proper man. He’s quiet and proud and I like that.
“I also like the way he transformed himself from a second-row to a world-class tight-head in his 20s, and both his province and his country became totally reliant on him for a decade.”
Hayes rarely missed a game; comparable to Atonio in having started 26 of the 30 matches he has featured in, averaging 55 minutes each game, this season.
“John demolished all the other potential candidates at tight-head over such a long period.
“As well as being so valuable, he was a good man to have a coffee with, even if he usually had a cup of milk, he has a great sense of humour and was always in the right fame of mind.”
O’Gara may have been playing some mind games this week, and the idea that Tawera Kerr-Barlow might play with a hurling glove may count as one.
A scrum-half who has to put his hand into rucks and deal with the ball on the ground — not just coming into his breadbasket — seems a risk.
That there is a juggernaut pack is not speculation, however; it is what is expected and what preparation has centred on.
“We would have played against a lot of them against France when we played over there this year,” continues Porter, alluding to Atonio and no8 Gregory Alldritt, who started in Stade de France.
“Obviously you have to do your homework on the opposition but there is a lot more to it than just looking at them, like looking at ourselves and knowing what we are capable of as well.”
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