Ronan O'Gara: Park Vannes. We are going to sink or swim in Bath

Attitude. Balls. Character. The ABC cornerstone of any successful outfit.

Of course, frittering away chances, as we did, drip feeds expectation to a team that had come to our place more in hope. I was at the entry/exit point of the pitch at half time as the sides came off level at 7-7 and the difference on the faces or our lads coming in with long faces against their fellas was startling. You could see the buzz on the Vannes faces. It was fantastic to see, like us four or five years ago.

How do you get it back? Isn’t that one of life’s great mysteries. It’s like the elusiveness of youth. Something you had but took for granted. I am not afraid to ask do we get it back at all? You have to confront reality; this is not an outlier for La Rochelle this season. That would be once or twice in eleven games, but this has happened to us four if not five times.

Right now, where we are idling, I’d bite anyone’s hand off for a big performance on Friday night against Bath at The Rec. I can’t worry about Bristol next week or Clermont the week after that. Truth to tell, I have no idea what’s going to happen tonight.

I don’t think it’s a rugby issue, which gives me hope. It’s attitude. Of course, you are dreaming if you don’t have the cattle, but La Rochelle do. The issue is who or what do we hang our hat on - character or playing ability? Lads that are strong-minded or are talented?

I’m scared a bit too, which is no bad thing. I hope the players are. Bath are flying with Finn Russell at the helm, a bouncing crowd under the Friday night lights. If they get on the front foot, it could get ugly.

But they won’t have played anything like us. When we are on, we are different beasts.

And there is no possible way we can’t be, at a minimum, good Friday night. I’ve adopted more of a hands-on approach on the training pitch this week, whether that makes any difference, we shall soon see. When you get a belt like last Saturday, you do what you have to do. All things being normal, we have a better chance of seeing our team this time.

In terms of the bigger picture, the plan for the first dozen or so games of the Bouclier was to grow our game, and there are signs. But you can’t be seriously proclaiming about growing anything if you are losing at home to the bottom side in the Top 14. And that is said with all respect.

Going to The Rec is like a different galaxy. It will be a wet, windy, cold night in Bath, it will be seriously challenging. We have to play smart and if current form says we can’t do these things, then with what this competition means to us, we should be able to defy those expectations.

It’s high time our leaders on the pitch led. And it will be easy to identify who’s standing up in the cauldron of The Rec on Friday night. Clearly Johann van Graan has found a spark there. They have a gem in Russell, a kicking nine in Spencer and an outstanding attack coach in Lee Blackett.

But Bath also have big, strong wingers who jump high and well which is a plus with the new rules on corridors and illegal blocking.

In any serious analysis of the Champions Cup, Toulouse and Leinster start favourites. They both have star-spangled rosters and of all the sorties into enemy territory this weekend, Ulster’s is probably the hardest, heading to the Ernest Wallon. Whatever else happens over the winter and spring, it remains a virtual rugby certainty that Toulouse and Leinster will still be in fine fettle when the Six Nations finishes next spring.

The form of the South African teams will be interesting. There is a lot of money swirling around teams like the Stormers and the Bulls, so the degree of intrigue is high around their bid to win a first Champions Cup for the southern hemisphere.

Leinster have some amount of options but away to Bristol is a good examination of their credentials. For Irish eyes, the Champions Cup offers a couple of informative Six Nations subplots, not least the respective form of Jack Crowley for Munster and Sam Prendergast and Ciarán Frawley with Leinster. With the Prendergast selection against Australia, Simon Easterby now has the scope, without pressure, of going whichever way he pleases in the Six Nations opener against the English. Any selection will not come across as a galloping shock. If Sam starts, it’s not such a big deal anymore.

The change has happened already and if Leinster are going well in Europe with Prendergast at the wheel, it is going to be some job for Crowley to shift him. Hence the Munster man has a delicate balancing act of striving for top form while not making it about him. No ‘I’ in team and all that. It’s 50-50 in my book and whoever has the better four games in Europe probably gets the jersey in the spring, at least for the opener. Remember as well that Ireland go to Murrayfield in Week Two. Scotland look a team on the move. It will be interesting to watch how Glasgow go in the Champions Cup.

Stade Francais are in Limerick on Saturday and in Top 14 clothes, they are improving rapidly. They had a bad start and fired their head coach Karim Ghezal at the end of September. That gave Paul Gustard the opportunity to step up, while my old Racing colleague Laurent Labit remains director of rugby. They lost last weekend in Bayonne, but it’s no bad prep for what’s coming at Thomond Park. Of course, lying 12th, they will be prioritising a rise up the ladder in the Top 14, so we will see their intentions for Munster with the team selection. Then again, they said the same for Bayonne last season.

Some French sides will send out mixed teams for the next two weeks to prep for the 12th journee of the Top 14 on the last weekend before Christmas. But all told, Munster have two winnable games. Castres away is not an easy game but there are worse away days in France.

If autumn international form continues into the European club campaign, watch out for Bordeaux-Begles’ winger Louis Bielle Biarrey. If you want to see the definition of speed kills on a rugby pitch, watch this kid. It’s not that he is doing exceptional things a la Dupont but he is obliterating opponents with his pace. Ask the All Blacks. He is scary good for 21.

Our own Teddy Thomas will be looking for a strong last six months before he heads off to Toulouse next season. Every challenge is an opportunity and it opens up a slot on the La Rochelle roster - but it has to be for a a JIFF (homegrown) qualified player. I liked the cut of Antoine Frisch, but the ex-Munster man is going to Toulon. Too late on that one.