Disco 2 Rear door not opening

Dammit, this is a self-inflicted cock up.

I have just removed the tail gate handles and door card. Drilled out the rivets holding the door release mechanism in pace, wrapped it in bubble wrap and tucked it neatly inside the door.
This is so that I could fit a 2mm checker plate card and attach a Front Runner drop down table with wooden slide out, without worrying about the door release standing proud and preventing the table from fitting flush.

Rather than rivet the checker plate into position I drilled out and fitted rivnuts so that I could remove it again more easily - that is the good news. The table is then secured with rivnuts to the checker plate.

Pleased with myself, as it all was very secure, quite neat and worked really well, I closed the tail gate.
Now it will not open......
The central locking is working fine, this is just the opening mechanism that is not working. I assumed that the outer handle would open the door independently of the inside opening handle. I now suspect that the system needs the inner door handle to be fixed in place. Can anyone confirm this?

So I need to crawl in the back, take down the dog/cargo guard, and try to remove the table and checker plate whist crouched under the shelf I installed last weekend. Doh!

Is there an easier way to get it through the outside handle? I just need to pull the cable to release the door.

Is your outside handle operating freely and returning to the default position properly. Mine started seizing up so wasn't returning out properly all the way so didn't have enough travel to operate the latch. I had to prize the hand plate out and work it free with wd40 then light oil to get it working freely again.

The outside handle seems to be moving through its normal range. It was perfectly fine before I swapped the door cards. What has changed is that before you pulled the handle, met resistance and the next movement opened the door. Now there is no resistance.

I will prize the plate off and do what I can from the outside, but I probably need to rivet the internal release handle back in place.