Ronan O'Gara's focus on the little details is what has transformed La Rochelle into European champions.
That's the view of Dillyn Leads, the South Africa winger who joined the club in 2020. Leyds recalls the first time he spoke to O'Gara was over Zoom in December 2019, when O'Gara was second in command to Jono Gibbes.
"I think it was pretty awkward for everyone involved because they were more concerned about the type of guy I was within the locker room and off the field," said Leyds.
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"They were saying we know your playing ability, so it was just a general conversation about Dillyn Leyds off the field."
That worked out in his favour and, having seen what O'Gara did last year in guiding Les Maritimes to a first-ever Champions Cup triumph, they are in a strong position to do the European-Top 14 double in the coming weeks.
“I think everyone in the rugby world knows that ROG is the kind of guy who always wants to win," Leyds said. "Every little thing, every small detail, nothing is not important to him.
“That’s what he has brought to this club. All we want to do is win and have that feeling every single time.
"Whether it’s a little battle in training or whether it’s getting into the kick-chase line or something like that – I think that’s the kind of mindset that he has brought here.
“Yes, we can have fun as a group off the field, there are certain times that we can joke and have a laugh, but when it’s time to do your job, do your job, and do it to the best of your ability.
“The direction the club is going now, you can see the kind of players we are attracting, guys want to be a part of this, and he (O’Gara) has obviously done a hell of a lot for the club.
“The players and everyone involved really enjoyed working with him.
"He has obviously a long-term deal to stay with the club, so hopefully as a group we can continue to work hard, not just for him, but for each other, and hopefully put the club in a position where we can continue to win trophies.”
As for Leinster, Leyds can see how this final sets up nicely for the province - given their determination to turn the tables on La Rochelle, who have beaten them in the competition in the last two years, in a semi-final and a final, and also because it is on home soil for Leo Cullen's charges.
The 30-year-old remarked: "I won’t say it’s a bit of revenge but from Leinster’s point of view I think this is the perfect final for them, having another shot at us.
We’re the defending champions and we want to go out there firing shots as well. Last year we wanted to take the initiave and play and not wait for them to come at us and realise, ‘shit, we’re 14 points down, now we’ve got to start playing rugby’.
We knoe they are a team that starts really quick and we want to make sure that we match them. If they are going to come out of the blocks firing, we don’t want to be looking up at the scoreboard after five minutes in Dublin and we’re chasing the game already.
We saw in that semi-final against Toulouse how quickly they got out of the blocks and from there on Toulouse were chasing the game.
Last year gives us a lot of confidence that we can break them but we also know that they have the ability to do the same to us. We’ve worked a hell of a lot on our defence and our all-round game and it came together perfectly in the semi-final against Exeter.
"Although we leaked a couple of points towards the end of the match, lack of concentration on a few small things, we fired shots and that’s what we’ve go to do this weekend.
It’s going to be the complete opposite environment to what we had in Bordeaux for our semi-final.
"We are going to have 50-odd thousand people against us instead of with us so if we are going to wait for something to happen or someone to take the initiative individually, we’re not going to be executing the plan we want to.
"Hopefully we come out firing shots from minute one - and we expect them to do the same thing. "
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