Leinster scuppered by the fine margins

If Jamie Heaslip had suggested before this Champions Cup semi-final that Leinster’s semi-final clash with Toulon would be akin to a boxing match, it may have conjured an image of a mismatch in the eyes of many observers.

Yet if Heaslip’s side had been considered lightweights when they arrived in Marseille the captain led the province out of Stade Velodrome last night having very much matched the French heavyweights pound for pound.

As unfancied as Leinster were coming into this last-four decider against the two-time defending champions with a roster full of expensively-assembled world-class talent, their ability to make this contest a nail-biter for 90 minutes ensured relief was the prevailing emotion in the Toulon camp when the final whistle eventually blew at the end of extra-time.

Toulon’s owner Mourad Boudjellal admitted he had been preparing a speech for defeat and searching for a way to behave graciously at the loss of his club’s mantle of European champions, while man of the match Leigh Halfpenny, the Wales full-back, spoke of his gratitude at once again surviving a tight scrape with an Irish side for the second time in a month.

That they did, to book a place in a third successive final, which will see them face domestic rivals Clermont Auvergne at Twickenham on May 2, came down to the tightest decision of all, one that could have gone either way but in this instance went the way of the French.

Just on the stroke of half-time in extra-time, at 18-15 down on a day of nip and tuck, Leinster centre Ian Madigan opted to fling a pass out wide to his midfield partner Ben Te’o. The Australian rugby league convert had numbers on his side as Toulon defended with a man down following the sin-binning of Ali Williams minutes earlier. Madigan knew that, which is why he chose to scoop the ball long. Yet Bryan Habana saw it too. The Springbok wing knew it was coming and he read the move perfectly, intercepting the pass and sprinting into open country to score the try that would deliver victory to Toulon.

There were still 10 minutes to play, six of them without Williams, who had taken out opposing lock Devin Toner in mid-air, but Toulon were home and hosed, particularly when Halfpenny delivered the conversion to make it 25-15.

Sean O’Brien would also get over the line as Leinster rallied one more time from a five-metre lineout but Madigan’s mistake and the resulting try had already ensured the die was cast. Not that captain Heaslip was pointing the finger at his Ireland colleague, who had kicked Matt O’Connor’s side into a 9-6 half-time lead and then gone toe to toe with Halfpenny to send the game into extra time at 12-all, his nerveless long-range penalty amid a cacophony of whistles from the home fans the highlight of the first 80 minutes, which ended with Jimmy Gopperth narrowly missing a drop goal and Delon Armitage coming up short with a penalty from inside his own half.

“It’s not down to one player,” Heaslip insisted. “It’s down to the group and the collective.

“At different times all players make mistakes in the game, on both sides, so it can’t be down to one moment. Like Matty said, we probably left opportunities out there in the first 40. I thought we had some very good position and momentum in the game to maybe get a bit more return than what we did. In the first 20 minutes of the second-half they had their purple patch, I suppose, and we stood our ground, literally.

“It felt like a boxing match, a slugfest out there – sides just kind of punching each other if they made a mistake and especially when you got down to each other’s half, there was a lot of pressure on both sides of the ball and it just showed there was nothing between the sides. At this level you make mistakes and a team like them with the quality players they have, they don’t need much.”

Heaslip is correct on a number of points. That Madigan should not shoulder the blame on his own but also that the sum of mistakes proved Leinster’s downfall.

“We were probably inaccurate at key moments in the second-half,” O’Connor said in reference to the regulation 80 minutes. “I thought we dominated for large periods, put them under pressure and made that tell on the scoreboard.

“We led for large parts of it and were probably the better side for large parts of it but we came second in extra time and that determined the result.”

That a Halfpenny penalty and Habana’s converted try had come when Leinster were at a numerical advantage following Williams’ yellow card will have made that harder to take, but O’Connor added: “It doesn’t matter how many blokes they’ve got on the field, Habana takes the intercept and that was the turning point.

“It’s potentially a 14-point play. If we play outside Habana and score at the other end we win the game and Ian’s an absolute hero.

“That’s the nature of the game and the margins are tiny at this level. There were probably seven or eight decisions from us, from the officials, that had the potential to change the game. It’s always going to be that tight at this level.”

In a game Toulon were expected to win by a country mile, it was the fine margins that killed Leinster.

That should be a source of pride for a head coach under pressure from the province’s supporters although it will be tinged with the regret that a final was well within his reach.

RC TOULON: L Halfpenny; D Armitage, M Bastareaud, M Giteau, B Habana (D Mitchell, 90); F Michalak (R Wulf, 47), S Tillous-Borde; X Chiocci (A Menini, 51), G Guirado (J-C Orioli, 65), C Hayman – captain (L Chilachava, 74); B Botha (J Suta, 60), A Williams; J Smith (S Armitage, 34), J Fernandez Lobbe, C Masoe.

LEINSTER: R Kearney; F McFadden (Z Kirchner, 59), B Te’o, I Madigan (G D’Arcy, 90), L Fitzgerald; J Gopperth, I Boss (E Reddan, 65); C Healy (J McGrath, 65), S Cronin (R Strauss, 65), M Ross (M Moore, 56); D Toner, M McCarthy (B Marshall, 90); J Murphy (D Ryan, 90), S O’Brien, J Heaslip – captain.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).