'Serious battle' of Leinster and La Rochelle is highlight as Investec Champions Cup quarter-finals come calling

Kinghorn picked once again as Toulouse try to get past Exeter

Games between Leinster and La Rochelle are so intense that they should come with a health warning according to Donnacha Ryan, the French side’s forwards coach, and the latest instalment of this rugby melodrama is unlikely to be anything other than gripping.

There is little love lost between the sides who meet in Dublin on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the Investec Champions Cup. It’s the tie of the round, bringing together the finalists from each of the last two seasons. La Rochelle came out on top both times and, just to rub salt in the wound, last year’s win came at the Aviva, Leinster’s manor.

The sides will be back there this weekend and the roots of their enmity lie deep. La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara is a Munster man to his bootstraps and likes nothing more than getting one over on Leinster. He had his squad back home in Cork this week to prepare for Saturday’s tie. “It's positive for the atmosphere, the routine's a bit different for the players,” said Ryan, a former Munster and Ireland team-mates of O’Gara’s.

Blair Kinghorn once again will star for Toulouse at 15.

The teams have already faced each other in the pool stage this season, with Leinster coming out on top in that one, winning 16-9 in France before Christmas. It was a notable result but not quite revenge for the last-gasp final defeats in Marseille in 2022 and Dublin last May.

“When you're at the top you're going to be playing the same teams more often,” Ryan said. “They're serious battles. The games sometimes come with a health warning as they can be intense. It's good for us because the boys love testing themselves against the best in the world.”

La Rochelle are one of three French teams left in the competition. Bordeaux-Begles get the ball rolling when they take on Danny Wilson’s Harlequins on Saturday in the first quarter-final. Bordeaux blew Saracens away last week, and they did it without their playmaker Matthieu Jalibert. He’ll be missing again on Saturday and so too will be his free-scoring France team-mate Damian Penaud but at least they can call upon the outstanding Louis Bielle-Biarrey on the left wing. For Quins, Marcus Smith holds the key. The fly-half was outstanding in the win over Glasgow and more of the same will be required at Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Toulouse, the third French team in the last eight, host 2020 winners Exeter Chiefs on Sunday at Stade Ernest Wallon. Scotland full-back Blair Kinghorn starts for the five-time champions, who have Romain Ntamack and Antoine Dupont in harness at half-back for the second week in a row. Exeter are big underdogs but have experience of winning in France this season after kicking off their Champions Cup campaign with a 19-18 victory over Toulon in December.

Leinster and La Rochelle clash once again in the Investec Champions Cup.

Northampton take on a Bulls team weakened by the absence of several big name Springboks at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday. The South Africans’ head coach Jake White has been criticised for naming a team without any of the internationals involved in the 59-19 rout of Lyon in the round of 16.

Willie le Roux, Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse are among those missing amid accusations that White is prioritising the United Rugby Championship over Europe. Complicating matters for the Bulls is that their squad were split across eight different airlines and an assortment of routes in order to be able make the journey to England from Pretoria.

“I have said it over and over again, last season I did not rotate my squad enough and it came back to bite me in the end,” White said. “But more importantly, I got medical advice that with some guys with bumps and bruises after our last travel to Dublin and the massive game against Lyon, it would be a massive risk for me to bring them overseas.”