Leinster 41-22 Toulouse: Hosts secure Heineken Champions Cup final place vs unfortunate visitors at Aviva Stadium
Jack Conan (two), Dan Sheehan, Josh van der Flier, Jason Jenkins score tries as Leinster beat Toulouse in European Cup semi-final in Dublin; Ross Byrne kicked 16 points; Toulouse crucially had Thomas Ramos and Rodrigue Neti sin-binned; Leinster to face La Rochelle or Exeter in final
By Michael Cantillon at Aviva Stadium
Last Updated: 30/04/23 8:09am
Leinster booked a home Heineken Champions Cup final place, as they clinically dispatched of an unfortunate Toulouse 41-22 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
Leinster, last European champions in 2018 and beaten finalists last year vs La Rochelle in Marseille, scored tries through No 8 Jack Conan (two), hooker Dan Sheehan, flanker Josh van der Flier, and replacement lock Jason Jenkins.
Ross Byrne also kicked impeccably for 16 points in the continued absence of the injured Johnny Sexton, but the contest swung mainly on two yellow cards shown to Toulouse, during which Leinster made hay, and one not shown to the hosts.
Leinster 41-22 Toulouse - Score summary
Leinster - Tries: Conan (17, 21), Sheehan (27), Van der Flier (58), Jenkins (64). Cons: Byrne (19, 23, 28, 59, 65). Pens: Byrne (5, 13).
Toulouse - Tries: Ahki (9), Meafou (35), Willis (80+2). Cons: Ramos (10, 35). Pens: Ramos (56).
Pita Ahki, Emmanuel Meafou and Jack Willis scored tries for Toulouse, who were actually the more threatening team for large parts, but Thomas Ramos (intentional knock-on) and Rodrigue Neti (head contact) spent crucial periods off the park, while Leinster prop Andrew Porter avoided sanction for a tip-tackle on Juan Cruz Mallía.
Toulouse also lost centre Pierre-Louis Barassi to an early injury, which proved disastrous as they selected a 6-2 split of forwards to backs on the bench, causing massive disruption.
Leinster will now face either defending champions La Rochelle or the Premiership's Exeter Chiefs in the Champions Cup final on May 20, to be played in Dublin.
Toulouse started the stronger, pressing the play deep in the Leinster half, but a costly Richie Arnold knock-on saw no reward, and a Leinster counter led by Charlie Ngatai - in for the injured Robbie Henshaw - then forced Toulouse to scramble and rush a clearance under pressure.
Off the resulting lineout, Toulouse No 8 Francois Cros jackalled over the ball at the breakdown, but was penalised for then slipping off feet - with back-row colleague Willis also lying on the wrong side - handing Byrne the chance to strike over for a 3-0 lead on five minutes.
A wonderful Ramos 50:22 set Toulouse back onto the attack, with centre Ahki - formerly of Connacht - sliding over for the opening try in the corner after a rapid attack across the field followed Willis making important yards into the 22.
Ramos converted brilliantly, but Leinster hit back quickly, again through the boot of Byrne, when Willis went unrewarded at the breakdown, and Arnold was penalised for a high tackle over the shoulder of Garry Ringrose. The Leinster No 10's straightforward strike bringing a helter-skelter start to the semi-final to a one-point game.
Despite Toulouse's thoroughly impressive opening, a routine Ramos mistake in the next key passage was to prove enormously costly, and set in chain a sequence of events that turned the contest.
The full-back landed into touch having caught a Jamison Gibson-Park clearance, stoking the home crowd and handing Leinster territory from which lovely interplay set Jimmy O'Brien into space down the right, where Barassi defended well, but was then forced to limp off.
It meant replacement scrum-half Paul Graou had to come in, shifting captain Antoine Dupont to out-half, and starting fly-half Romain Ntamack to centre. Within moments, further disruption followed as Ramos was sin-binned for an intentional knock-on out wide, giving way to an inevitable Leinster try as Conan struck from close-range, with Toulouse unable to deal with nor abate the speed of service at the ruck.
A neck-roll call against Toulouse invited Leinster back onto the attack vs a disordered 14, and Conan soon had his second, dummying to saunter in at the corner as the home side's numbers told. Byrne drove over from the tee again, and suddenly the game, from a position of a competitive beginning, was 20-7.
O'Brien was almost over for another try in the same corner moments later - in fact it was awarded on the spot by referee Wayne Barnes - only for replays to show a loss of control in the grounding.
Ramos returned with severe damage done, notwithstanding the fact it could have been even worse, and within seconds, it was: Leinster spoiling a Toulouse lineout to ground, and when Dupont passed backwards in haste, he succeeded only in cannoning the ball off Willis' head. Sheehan was alert enough to take it in, before showing exceptional pace to sprint over for a third Leinster try in just 10 minutes.
Byrne continued to show no signs of missing, curling over from wide out, but this time Toulouse responded with a spell of pressure, as Dupont, Ntamack, Ahki and hooker Peato Mauvaka each looked dangerous with ball in hand, only for an ultimate knock-on to let Leinster off the hook.
A Meafou breakdown penalty saw Toulouse back into the 22, but the ensuing lineout proved extremely untidy as another chance came and went.
Five minutes from the break, Toulouse did strike back via an excellent Meafou try, with Dupont and Willis playing big parts in the lead-up to create the position, before the big lock forward, who took in the ball surrounded by Leinster players, sprung forward to ground on the line - Porter somehow getting away with a clearly illegal dump tackle on Mallía just prior.
Ramos converted to bring Toulouse within 13 points, but a superb Ngatai 50:22 gave Leinster a final shot at adding more points before the half-time whistle, only for a crucial Mauvaka breakdown effort to deny them.
Toulouse, much like in the first half, started in the ascendency in the second, with Ahki breaking down the right wing, and once Tadhg Furlong was penalised for failing to roll away in the shadow of the posts, the visitors sprung into gear on advantage, with fabulous Dupont hands almost creating a try in the corner.
Toulouse chose to kick to touch with the penalty play was brought back for, but Ahki spilled the ball under the challenge of Ngatai yards from the try-line in a big missed opportunity.
A scrum penalty won against the head saw Toulouse choose to kick for the posts with their next penalty via Ramos, bringing them within 10 points, but another yellow card - this time for replacement prop Neti making head contact with Van der Flier at a ruck - was to prove fatal, as Leinster kicked to the corner and immediately scored again through the aforementioned flanker in a driving maul.
A little over five minutes later, Jenkins scored following another well-formed Leinster maul - with Toulouse, as they were for all five tries conceded, down to 14 - wrapping up the semi-final victory with time to spare, before the visitors had the last say through a Willis try of little solace in the final play.
