A full-front page photo of Captain Alldritt and the iconic Sazy lifting the trophy, crossed out with a "Giants!" Sud-Ouest has no too strong qualifiers to evoke the heroic triumph of the Maritimes, Saturday night in Dublin: "incredible Rochelais", "a monstrous second period"... La Dépêche du dimanche evokes on the front page of the "Rochelais unsinkable".
The team also puts the European champions on its front page. A photo of joy and a nice title: "Two stars in your eyes". For the sports daily, this triumph is "a moment of eternity". "At the end of a match with a stunning scenario and a match of crazy intensity, the Rochelais, although badly started, extinguished Leinster in Dublin (...) They enter the legend of competition.
»" READ ALSO Champions Cup: Emmanuel Macron salutes La Rochelle "for this victory that will make history"
«A defeat that will hurt Leinster for a long time»
Obviously, the atmosphere is not the same on the Irish press side. The Irish Times reports a promised success that Leinster has again missed. "La Rochelle has broken their hearts again." Stressing that the Irish players have "not lacked courage but energy". "A defeat that will hurt Leinster for a long time," predicts The Independent.
The Irish Examiner speaks of a "thriller" finale, the "superb return" of the Rochelais. "The dream home final turned into despair for Leinster," the daily continued.
" READ ALSO Champions Cup: madness in the middle of the night in La Rochelle for the glorious return of heroes
The Sunday Independent preferred to open on a photo of Ronan O'Gara accompanied by his mother, both ecstatic after the final - "Glorious day for the O'Garas" -, recalling the ancestral rivalry between the province of Munster, where the coach of the Stade Rochelais spent a large part of his career, and that of Leinster. And do not hesitate to speak of the "darkest day" in the history of the province of Dublin.