Champions Cup semi-final: Leinster 29 Toulon 25
When the excellent Luke Pearce signalled the end, the roar from the fraught 38,555 crowd, who had been taken to the extremes of their emotions, was caused by relief as much as joy.
It told us much that only James Ryan, briefly, raised his arms aloft before sinking to his knees. His team-mates were also too exhausted and relieved to truly celebrate reaching a record-extending ninth Champions Cup final on May 23rd.
Not that another mixed performance will make them anything but underdogs in the Bilbao decider, for by rights it should never have come to that. When Harry Byrne converted Caelan Doris’s 67th-minute try Leinster led 29-11 and seemed to have finally shaken off an obdurate Toulon and beaten them for the first time in five attempts.
But though Leinster had defended well for large parts of the game, Toulon had much the better impact off a bench, which Pierre Mignoni will regret not turning to sooner and exposed further cracks in the Leinster defence to come within one pass of a remarkable win. In all Leinster missed 37 tackles for a 70 per cent success rate and leaked eight line breaks.
The ghosts of last season’s semi-final loss here to Northampton contributed to a nervous Leinster display. But to lose this would have been even more psychologically shattering and at least they have exorcised a few demons.
Ultimately it was a good win, but in truth Leinster could have been further out of sight much sooner. Their scrum unexpectedly yielded five penalties as Andrew Porter and Thomas Clarkson put in huge shifts. So too did Doris, who made the game’s most tackles (16), carries (22), metres (55) and beat the most defenders (five), though he will rue two penalties conceded. There was also much to admire in Leinster’s typically strong launch plays and their high tempo short-passing multiphase attacks.
But they left tries behind, and their ill-discipline and overly aggressive defence, even when needlessly gambling with two men in the bin and in a wild last 10 minutes, let Toulon back in. Though he ran the team very well Harry Byrne was a little awry in his kicking off the tee and out of hand.
Josh van der Flier scores Leinster’s second try at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
He surprisingly pulled a straightish 33-metre penalty in the fourth minute before Melvyn Jaminet almost cleared the top of the posts from inside halfway but was slightly wide.
Doris ripped the ball off Gaël Dréan for Rieko Ioane to chase Jamison Gibson-Park’s quick-witted grubber into space. Tomas Albornoz cleared the danger but at the expense of a lineout 25 metres out.
Robbie Henshaw was launched up the middle and with Gibson-Park picking out his options as sharply as ever, Josh van der Flier made good ground up the blindside, as did Byrne, before Jack Conan powered on to Gibson-Park’s pass to score. Byrne converted.
But Henshaw was stretchered off after being laid out by the carry of Toulon’s brilliant young Georgian number eight Mikheil Shioshvili and Garry Ringrose took out Jerémy Sinzelle for Jaminet to land a 40-metre penalty. Gibson-Park’s finish was then ruled out for a slight fumble on review after good hands by Byrne, Tommy O’Brien and Hugo Keenan released Ioane and Porter made two huge carries.
Leinster kept hammering but Toulon held firm and kept exiting well, and Doris needlessly gave away a penalty on halfway for Jaminet to make it 7-6. Byrne even kicked the restart dead but that yielded another scrum penalty and when he crosskicked for Dan Sheehan, crucially Setariki Tuicuvu put his foot in touch.
Cue a catch-and-drive, a penalty against Charles Ollivon for side entry and a clever tap penalty; Doris pivoting on to Gibson-Park’s pass for Van der Flier to power through Ollivon’s tackle. Byrne converted for 14-6.
But discipline and defensive chinks opened the door for Toulon; Albornoz making inroads before they found numbers out wide. Porter was binned for a high hit on Shioshvili and following a maul and carries by Nacho Brex and Jean-Baptiste Gros, Ben White switched direction for Jaminet and Sinzelle to put Tuicuvu over.
Toulon’s Gaël Dréan on his way to scoring a try against Leinster late on at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Jaminet missed the conversion and Leinster survived some harem-scarem moments before resuming, still with 13 men. O’Brien crucially beat Ollivon in the air to earn a foothold in the Toulon 22 and Leinster brilliantly went to work with multiple hard carries. That felt seminal.
James Ryan was held up but with the home crowd now baying for Toulon cards, Teddy Baubigny was binned for a high hit on Van der Flier. Better still from Sheehan’s hard carry off the penalty, Van der Flier’s pass eluded Jamie Osborne but bounced for Ringrose to beat Albornoz and Tuicuvu.
Ringrose missed the conversion but Byrne returned to land a fourth Leinster scrum penalty from halfway to make it 22-11. Although he missed another one, Leinster pummelled a wonderfully defiant Toulon to earn a penalty to the corner before Doris eventually powered through Zach Mercer to score.
But Toulon weren’t done. They too went to their maul, before Jean-Baptiste Serin, an upgrade on White, dummied and scored. Byrne was unlucky to see a well struck spiral off a turnover go fractionally out on the full and with a penalty advantage off a lineout drive, Serin brilliantly manufactured a pass off the deck and Albornoz crosskicked for Dréan to easily fend Sam Prendergast, with Jaminet converting.
There was one final heart-in-mouth moment when Ioane jammed in and Brex sliced through to release Dréan. Critically, he was forced inside in the 77th minute by a tireless Joe McCarthy and passed inside to Tuicuvu but, to Ioane’s eternal credit, he recovered to make the tackle which forced the loose offload.
High wire and high risk to the end.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 12 mins: Conan try, Byrne pen, 7-0; 15: Jaminet pen, 7-3; 25: Jaminet pen, 7-6; 32: Van der Flier try, Byrne con, 14-6; 36: Tuicuvu try, 14-11; (half-time 14-11); 43: Ringrose try, 19-11; 48: Byrne pen, 22-11; 66: Doris try, Byrne con, 29-11; 69: Serin try, con 29-18; 75: Dréan try, Jaminet con, 29-15.
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Rieko Ioane; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tom Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Jamie Osborne for Henshaw (15 mins); Jerry Cahir for Ioane (40-45 & 74); Scott Penny for Van der Flier (47); Ioane for Van der Flier (46); Alex Soroka for Conan (56); Sam Prendergast for O’Brien (69); Rabah Slimani for Clarkson (70); Rónan Kelleher for Sheehan (74).
Not used: Luke McGrath.
Yellow cards: Porter (36 mins), Byrne (40).
TOULON: Melvyn Jaminet; Gaël Dréan, Nacho Brex, Jérémy Sinzelle, Setariki Tuicuvu; Tomas Albornoz, Ben White; Jean-Baptiste Gros, Teddy Baubigny, Kyle Sinckler; Corentin Mezou, David Ribbans (capt); Junior Kpoku, Charles Ollivon, Mikheil Shioshvili.
Replacements: Gianmarco Lucchesi for Kpoku (48 mins); Baptiste Serin for White, Beka Gigashvili for Sinckler, Zach Mercer for Shioshvili, Esteban Abadie for Lucchesi (all 55); Matthias Halagahu for Mezou, Daniel Brennan for Gros (both 61); Lucchesi for Baubigny (67); Mathis Ferte for Sinzelle (72).
Yellow card: Baubigny (44 mins).
Referee: Luke Pearce (Eng).