Leinster lose in Toulouse

Leinster's reign as Heineken Cup champions came to an end in southwest France as they were beaten 26-16 by Toulouse.

An abosorbing semi-final was settled in the home side's favour by two tries in the space of four second-half minutes, the first coming from Yannick Jauzion.

David Skrela then followed it up by touching down underneath the posts, the fly-half adding the conversion on his way to a personal haul of 21 points.

Although Leinster did their best to keep their dreams of playing in Paris alive, a try from number eight Jamie Heaslip proved no more than a consolation.

All-French final?

Instead an all-French final remains a realistic possibility in the capital, with Toulouse now awaiting the winners of Sunday's second semi-final between Munster and Biarritz.

Whoever they face on May 22, Toulouse will surely start as favourites. Totally dominant up front, Guy Noves' side made heavy weather of things on a sodden pitch in the first half before finding their feet in attack after the break.

Leinster were fortunate to only be 9-6 down at the interval having had a particularly tough time of it in the scrum. Their inability to cope under pressure led to a change after only 30 minutes, prop Cian Healy hauled off in favour of the sizeable South African CJ Van Der Linde.

Yet despite their problems in the pack, it was the visitors who had the best chance to score the opening try when Eoin Reddan burst clear from a ruck.

The scrum-half looked certain to score but, rather than allow momentum to take him over the line, he became too eager to ground the ball too quickly, letting it spill from his grasp as he reached out for the whitewash.

At that stage Leinster were already 6-0 behind, Skrela kicking penalties in the fourth and 16th minute from the right-hand side.

The fly-half slotted over three more points from the opposite wing when Leinster had been left with little option but to pull down a dangerous-looking rolling maul.

However the hosts proved to be hospitable when it came to giving points away, two needless penalties allowing Shane Byrne to keep his team in touch.

Scrum-half Byron Kelleher was guilty of a needless block off the ball to let the stand-in number 10, playing there in place of the injured Jonathan Sexton, get Leinster on the board. He then stepped up to add three more points with the final kick of the half.

Jitters

With Skrela suddenly suffering a case of the jitters off the kicking tee at the start of the second period, Leinster levelled matters with a Rob Kearney penalty from inside his own half.

The deadlock remained until the 56th minute before Jauzion cut back superbly on the angle to barge his way over the line and start a 14-point blitz from Toulouse.

Skrela converted to calm both his and the home fans' nerves and, with his confidence suddenly restored, produced a superb sidestep to get inside Brian O'Driscoll and give himself an easy run-in to the line.

Leinster grabbed a lifeline out of nowhere when O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy combined to set Reddan free. Once again the number nine was unable to get over, though the ball was worked out wide for Heaslip to cross untouched.

Byrne converted from near the left touchline to cut the gap down to a converted try. That was as close as they managed to get, though, as Skrela's fourth penalty sealed a deserved win for Toulouse in front of a crowd of 34,951.