Bloodied Leinster show champions’ mettle

FOR the third season in-a-row, the best two sides in the Heineken Cup meet outside the decider itself.

In last season’s classic semi-final in Bordeaux, Clermont fluffed their lines in the final act when Wesley Fofana failed to ground the ball in the act of scoring. Had he done so, not only would they have won the game but in all probability, the tournament itself. Clermont sensed that too, so on this occasion the sight of the Leinster jersey was always going to incite a big reaction.

For the fourth time in five seasons, we travelled to the magnificent Stade Marcel Michelin in the hope of seeing an Irish side breach an impregnable fortress. Their current unbeaten run extended to 50 games before this contest — now make that 51. Twice Munster and more recently Leinster were happy to make a hasty retreat with a losing bonus point in the bag after being stretched to the limit by the brilliance of the home side. Indeed, despite defeat on two of those occasions, the losing side went on to capture the trophy, Munster in 2008 and Leinster in 2011. What chance history repeating itself once again on that front for Leinster?