Leinster survive drama against Toulon to earn Champions Cup final spot

Murray Kinsella Reports from the Aviva Stadium

Leinster 29

Toulon 25

SACRÉ BLUE. TOULON nearly did it. They were a Gaël Dréan offload inside to fellow wing Setariki Tuicuvu from breaking Leinster’s hearts in the Champions Cup once again.

The French visitors had surged back into the game, having seemingly been down and out, and with just under three minutes to go, they broke out of their own half through the exceedingly threatening Dréan. All they needed was a try to win it.

Time must have slowed down for Leo Cullen up in the Leinster coaching box. But intense relief followed as Dréan’s offload inside edged forward and Tuicuvu knocked on.

To Leinster’s credit, they scrambled as hard as ever in those nerve-wracking moments, Rieko Ioane and Joe McCarthy doing particularly well, but they really shouldn’t have been in such a stressful situation. Having gone 29-11 ahead with only 13 minutes left, the game seemed to be done and dusted.

Yet Toulon fought back with two swift tries, only for their efforts to ultimately be in vain.

Leinster will be playing in the Champions Cup final on Saturday 23 May at Bilbao’s San Mamés Stadium.

Cullen’s side now lie in wait for the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final between reigning champions Bordeaux, who have home advantage, and English side Bath.

This will be Leinster’s ninth Champions/Heineken Cup final. They won their first four finals but have been second best on the most recent four occasions. So their appetite for this decider will be immense.

Overall, this was a somewhat typical Leinster win against Toulon on a dry, mild day in Dublin. They mixed some excellent stuff with some poor bits.

Their attacking work in the 22 was clinical, with Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Garry Ringrose, and Caelan Doris crossing for tries from close range.

Leinster were imposing at times, suffocating Toulon in their own half, although Cullen and Jacques Nienaber are sure to pick out lots of other times when their team allowed Toulon to get footholds in the game.

Doris was a leader by example for Leinster, topping both the tackle and carry charts by some distance, while the returning Andrew Porter looked suitably refreshed as he made some aggressive dents in the Toulon defence.

Player of the match Porter was also part of a strong Leinster scrum performance, with Thomas Clarkson impressing at tighthead in the injury-enforced absence of Tadhg Furlong. It was a welcome sight for Leinster fans to see their team earning a string of penalties at that set-piece.

Tommy O’Brien was accurate and abrasive off the right wing, while Ioane produced a busy performance wide on the left.

As ever, scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park was influential in the key moments. Out-half Harry Byrne had a couple of wobbly moments with his kicking as he started a Champions Cup semi-final for the first time, but he was sharp in attack for Leinster.

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It was frustrating for Leinster to allow Toulon back into the game at the death, although they had enough to survive the late French onslaught.

This win may have come at a cost, with Robbie Henshaw carted off after suffering a head injury, Conan limped off in pain in the second half, while van der Flier and O’Brien were also forced off, but the bottom line is that Leinster are into the Champions Cup final.

They’re one win away from ending their long wait. This latest final will be in Bilbao, where Leinster won their most recent title in 2018. 

Leinster out-half Byrne and Toulon fullback Melvyn Jaminet exchanged missed penalties inside the opening 10 minutes of the game, the former from 30 metres out and in front of the posts, the latter from 53 metres out in a central position.

But it was Leinster who landed the first blow on the scoreboard as Conan barged over at the end of a lethal lineout attack that also featured a strong van der Flier carry and Byrne darting at the line dangerously. Gibson-Park directed the passage with poise before Byrne converted.

A lengthy break in play followed when Henshaw suffered a head injury in a tackle on Mikheil Shioshvili, and Toulon were the sharper upon the resumption. A Ringrose tackle off the ball was punished by Jaminet to the tune of three points. 

Leinster thought they were back humming as they put together another potent attack into the Toulon 22, Ioane making gains down the left and Porter twice carrying explosively in midfield, but Gibson-Park’s finish was ruled out as TMO Ian Tempest’s review highlighted a knock-on by the scrum-half.

And Toulon were able to close the deficit when Jaminet landed his second successful penalty, punishing Leinster skipper Doris for playing the ball in a ruck. 

Leinster still led 7-6 with 25 minutes gone, but Byrne’s restart went dead to hand Toulon another chance to pressurise the home team. Although Leinster won a scrum penalty on halfway, Doris threw a forward pass to van der Flier to end the ensuing attack.

But they kept their foot on Toulon’s throats, and the pressure eventually yielded a cracking try for van der Flier from a clever five-metre tap penalty play that saw Doris throw a late pass out the back to the openside flanker, who finished strongly.

Leinster were 14-6 to the good, yet Toulon had no interest in allowing them to cruise into half time, going straight back on the offensive. Leinster’s discipline slipped and Porter was yellow-carded for a high tackle on Shioshvili.

Toulon kicked to touch, earned penalty advantage, then skilfully worked the ball wide left for wing Tuicuvu to finish beyond Gibson-Park. Referee Luke Pearce had already warned Leinster and he showed Byrne a yellow card for his offside offence.

Suddenly down to 13 men and under the pump, Leinster had to dig in to get to the break with a 14-11 advantage.

Leinster’s start to the second half was immense as they kicked off, pressured Toulon into a poor exit, then bullied them physically with relentless carrying in the shortside.

The ball was in play for nearly three minutes and Toulon were suddenly the ones reeling despite having 15 men against 13. Leinster rumbled forward ominously and hooker Teddy Baubigny erred with a high tackle on van der Flier.

He went to the sin bin, Leinster tapped the penalty and though van der Flier’s pass to Jamie Osborne was knocked on by Ollivon, it bounced up nicely for Ringrose to gather and dart over for a well-earned third Leinster try. With Byrne still in the bin, Ringrose missed his conversion attempt.

The Leinster scrum continued to do damage, with a dominant effort in the 48th minute allowing Byrne to land a penalty from 39 metres out, giving his team breathing room at 22-11.

Toulon turned to their bench and replacement back rows Zach Mercer and Esteban Abadie soon combined for a big linebreak, but Leinster scrambled well. 

Byrne had another chance off the tee as the game entered the final quarter, with Toulon’s Jérémy Sinzelle penalised for a high tackle, only for the Leinster playmaker’s shot at goal to be off target.

But Leinster seemed to put the outcome beyond all doubt in the 67th minute after another imposing passage of pressure. It was fitting that it was the hard-carrying Doris who scored as he stretched out from close range to the delight of the home support.

It would have frustrated Cullen and Nienaber to see Leinster concede a second try with 10 minutes left, with replacement scrum-half Baptiste Serin dotting down as the Toulon team simply refused to give up. Jaminet converted.

Even more concerning was Toulon wing Gaël Drean receiving an Albornoz cross kick and swatting off sub out-half Sam Prendergast to finish with five minutes left, following an excellent attacking sequence from the French side.

Jaminet converted once again and somehow, Toulon were back within four points at 29-25. 

There was more heart-in-mouth drama as Drean broke out, but Leinster held on.

Leinster scorers:

Tries: Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Garry Ringrose, Caelan Doris

Conversions: Harry Byrne [3 from 3], Garry Ringrose [0 from 1]

Penalties: Harry Byrne [1 from 3]

Toulon scorers:

Tries: Setariki Tuicuvu, Baptiste Serin, Gael Drean

Conversions: Melvyn Jaminet [2 from 3]

Penalties: Melvyn Jaminet [2 from 3]

LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien (Sam Prendergast ’68), Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw (Jamie Osborne ’15), Rieko Ioane (Jerry Cahir ’41 to ’47); Harry Byrne (yellow card ’37), Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter (yellow card ’36) (Jerry Cahir ’75), Dan Sheehan (Rónan Kelleher ’75), Thomas Clarkson (Rabah Slimani ’70); Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Jack Conan (Alex Soroka ’56), Josh van der Flier (Scott Penny ’47); Caelan Doris (captain).

Replacement not used: Luke McGrath

TOULON: Melvyn Jaminet; Gaël Drean, Nacho Brex, Jérémy Sinzelle (Mathis Ferté ’73), Setariki Tuicuvu; Tomas Albornoz, Ben White (Baptiste Serin ’55); Jean-Baptiste Gros (Daniel Brennan ’60), Teddy Baubigny (yellow card ’44) (Gianmarco Lucchesi ’66), Kyle Sinckler (Beka Gigashvili ’55); Corentin Mezou (Matthias Halagahu ’60), David Ribbans (captain); Junior Kpoku (Gianmarco Lucchesi ’47 to ’55) (Esteban Abadie ’55), Charles Ollivon, Mikheil Shioshvili (Zach Mercer ’55).

Referee: Luke Pearce [RFU].