![\"Leinster's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ISM7NYLRKXG3RDGVWNRLF3PZVU.jpg\")
Leinster’s Andrew Porter is tackled by Toulon’s David Ribbans during the Champions cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho 1 Andrew Porter<\/p>\n15 Hugo Keenan<\/p>\n
The epitome of class and composure, he covered the backfield and left very little space for Toulon to exploit. Contested well aerially, made his tackles in a fine display. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
14 Tommy O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n
Arguably his best performance in a Leinster jersey and that\u2019s saying something given several humdingers in the past. The quality and quantity of his input was inspirational for his team, whether attacking, defending or chipping and chasing. Rating: 9<\/p>\n
13 Garry Ringrose<\/p>\n
The integrity of his effort was recognised in the try. He was aggressive in his line-speed in trying to shut down Toulon\u2019s access to the wider channels. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
12 Robbie Henshaw<\/p>\n
Knocked out in a collision with Toulon number eight Mikheili Shioshvili on 15 minutes, an unfortunate end for a player who had started brightly on both sides of the ball. Rating: N\/A <\/p>\n
11 Rieko Ioane<\/p>\n
His physical prowess was very evident in the early stages of the game as he occupied multiple tacklers and kept that up for large tranches. Made some good reads in defence to shut down a couple of Toulon counterattacks. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
10 Harry Byrne<\/p>\n
Sluggish start to the game with the boot, missing from the tee and out of hand, the former issue lingered. He had a good carry in the build-up to Jack Conan\u2019s try but the yellow card, for cumulative team offences, was unfortunate. Rating: 6<\/p>\n
9 Jamison Gibson-Park<\/p>\n
The disallowed try was harsh given the ball never left his fingertips, but it was a minor aside as he controlled the game with typical industry and his kicking out of defence was superb. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
Leinster’s Andrew Porter is tackled by Toulon’s David Ribbans during the Champions cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho 1 Andrew Porter<\/p>\n
Strong carrying, exceptional in the scrum, conspicuous in his output and impact but will be annoyed that he got caught upright for a yellow card that adhered to the latter of the law. Excellent game coming back from injury. The official man of the match. Rating: 8 <\/p>\n
2 Dan Sheehan<\/p>\n
Lineout functioned beautifully, scrum went well and while he didn\u2019t get to raise a traditional gallop in the wider channels, he worked hard around the fringes and particularly in defence. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
3 Thomas Clarkson<\/p>\n
He out-scrummed French international loosehead Jean Baptiste Gros, which would have been a sizeable coup on its own. But his work-rate and diligence in defence were standout contributions. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
4 Joe McCarthy<\/p>\n
Industrious and effective particularly in his physicality. One of two trademark muscular carries and a lineout option for his team, his strength in the maul, on attack and in defence was evident. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
5 James Ryan<\/p>\n
The secondrows were like peas in a pod in terms of what they offered their team across the basic duties, but also the way they showed in all aspects of the game. Ryan played with intelligence and a sharp focus. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
6 Jack Conan<\/p>\n
His ability to power through collisions was evident in the try he scored and in the early stages of the match when giving his team front foot ball, from which to play. Happy to muck out with the rest of the pack in the less glamorous stuff. An ankle issue forced him off. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
7 Josh van der Flier<\/p>\n
An outstanding performance in tone and content, he brought a hard-nosed intensity to everything he did and his try was a fitting reward for a player who did so much work to a brilliant standard. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
8 Caelan Doris <\/p>\n
Those who live by the breakdown poach, can die by the whistle on occasion as he found to his cost. But his carrying into contact was first class, his excellent footwork allowing him to win the first contact. Try was an example of that quality. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
Replacements<\/p>\n
Jamie Osborne was called upon early but didn\u2019t miss a beat in his work, Jerry Cahir locked down the scrum when his side were short-handed, while Alex Soroka and Scott Penny gave Leinster fresh legs and energy. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
Coach<\/p>\n
Leo Cullen will be delighted with the win but not aspects of the performance, particularly the end game when the collective switched off, missed tackles and came within a knock-on of losing the match. Rating: 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"15 Hugo Keenan The epitome of class and composure, he covered the backfield and left very little space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32728,61,60,11287,112],"class_list":["post-429590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-champions-cup","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}