CHAMPIONS CUP – Absent last year in the final, Tawera Kerr-Barlow wants to wear La Rochelle against Leinster

From the Velodrome to Dublin, there is only one step. Same teams, same tactics, same coaches: this final between Leinster and La Rochelle in Dublin (5:45 p.m.) is in many ways similar to that of last season. Tawera Kerr-Barlow, however, is about to play a very different role. From carrying pastries last year, the New Zealand scrum-half will have to become a conductor.

Regular leader, unexpected scorer

Injured in the hand just before the final in 2022, the n°9 from La Rochelle had not applied for the final, propelling neophyte Thomas Berjon to the lead. Kerr-Barlow remembers him; but the wonderful outcome of this final made us forget that Stade La Rochelais sent Leinster to the mat (24-21), without its main master to play. Reduced to having to buy croissants for his teammates before the final in Marseille, TWB has the opportunity to mark this new duel with its mark.

“I was happy for the team at the Vélodrome and I had done my part of the jobthe scrum-half recalled last month. Whether or not I’m on the pitch, I’m doing the maximum.” This is still where he is the best, and his final phase in the Champions Cup confirms it. With 5 tries in three games, the native of Melbourne laid his accounting stone in the building of an incredible 15 wins in a row in the competition.Beyond the breaths of air he gave to a still dominating but sometimes frustrated Stade La Rochelais offensively, Kerr-Barlow led the La Rochelle boat impeccably.Without ever doing too much, but with impeccable application and regularity.

It is Ronan O’Gara, his manager, who still talks about it best. “What a professional it is. For me, it’s the second best number 9 in the world behind (Antoine) Dupontdared the Irishman after the quarter-final against Saracens (24-10). It’s good for the young people at the club to see him work, to understand his regularity by observing his preparation and his state of mind. On basic things, he is very strong“Often put in a good mood by his gargantuan package of forwards, Kerr-Barlow does not outbid.

After witnessing the feat of his companions in Marseille last year, the 32-year-old scrum-half can mark this new shock at the top of his mark. At his side in the hinge, the French opener Antoine Hastoy still discovers the peaks in which the Stade Rochelais evolves; he has tamed them for a long time. However, he has never won a final with the Yellow and Black, with whom he was doubly defeated against Stade Toulousain in 2021, and against Clermont in the final of the European Challenge in 2019. For one of the most examples of the Rochelaise grinder, winning this one would be well deserved.