Johnny Sexton gave his thoughts on where it went wrong for Leinster after Saturday’s Champions Cup loss to La Rochelle.
Sexton believes that a lack of being clinical cost his side, culminating in losing the game in the dying moments.
“We had chances to score, we just couldn’t nail it, that’s the devastating bit.
“It’s a tough way to lose, in the last second and not even have a chance to come back and try to win the game.”
The Leinster out half took the podium right before the winning coach did. A difference between kicking for the corner and settling for penalties may also have been a key difference.
“At times we could have been a bit more aggressive and gone for tries on a couple of those penalties, because they were repeatedly infringing.
“But we decided to keep the scoreboard ticking over, but hindsight is a great thing, everyone is an expert. We made the decisions, and we were in control.”
When it comes down to it though, Sexton did not fault the effort of his side. It may have simply been a case of it not being their day.
“They had just gone down to 14, and we give away a high tackle, which … I don’t know…
“There were a couple of big moments, a couple of big decisions, that put them in a position to get into our 22 and when they got down to our 22, we don’t get out of there again.
“Although, look, you can’t fault the effort, the spirit.
“To hold La Rochelle out for the last however many minutes it was, was incredible. You can’t fault the effort, at times it comes down to the bounce of the ball and a couple of decisions.
“We will look at them but we will also look at ourselves and talk about some of the inaccuracies we had.
“We were in a position to win the game and we didn’t.”
