When La Rochelle reached last year’s Champions Cup final at the Aviva Stadium they became the third team – alongside fellow French Top 14 sides Toulouse and Toulon – to feature in three consecutive finals.
Toulouse and La Rochelle managed to win two of their three appearances while Toulon’s Galacticos – featuring the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Bakkies Botha and Matt Giteau – won three on the trot between 2013 and 2015.
To emulate that feat, Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle, until this season seen as a fortress club on the Atlantic coast, will need to beat the Stormers in South Africa, then – likely – Leinster in Dublin, Northampton Saints in England and a finalist at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Achieving such an unlikely treble of titles would mark one of the most incredible periods in French club rugby history and, having reached four consecutive finals to make it happen, some would say one of the most impressive achievements in the sport.
La Rochelle against the odds
But everything is against La Rochelle. In years gone by they relied on their almost impenetrable Stade Marcel-Deflandre but this year, given their rankings after the group stage, are likely to be away from home all the way to the final – should they reach it.
This weekend they’re in Cape Town to take on the Stormers in a repeat of one of their group games.
In the pool stage the French outfit lost 21-20 thanks to a try in the dying moments, and it marked a second loss in as many games early on in the competition after an opening defeat at the hands of Leinster.
O’Gara’s brigade went on to topple Leicester Tigers at home before beating Sale Sharks in Manchester to earn a spot in the Investec Champions Cup Round of 16 ranked 10th.
But the club have not been able to rely on domestic form as a momentum boost heading into two weeks of crunch knockout rugby, with O’Gara’s side just winning six of their last 10 French Top 14 matches.
La Rochelle are supposed to be the consistent side, and were in the European and domestic finals last year thanks to such reliability, but that has faded slightly.
They have been plagued by injury and have faced a loss of confidence following the absence of some players in and around the World Cup, as well as an inability to recruit quite the way they want to.
Feared
But La Rochelle, who were promoted a decade ago this year, are still a feared club regardless of their run of form. Beating them comes with a huge amount of kudos.
They may bow out of the Champions Cup this weekend but it would take one monumental performance from the Stormers to ensure that prophecy is fulfilled.
An era of European rule could come to an end by dusk on Saturday evening, but if by any reason it doesn’t then know that La Rochelle are back.
And know they have exactly what it takes to make four consecutive finals and lift three consecutive titles.
Last year’s final