Battling Leinster succumb to Toulon in extra time

By Simon Lewis

Toulon 25 Leinster 20 (after extra time)

Leinster's Champions Cup odyssey is at an end but not before they took back-to-back defending champions Toulon to extra time on French soil in a tight encounter in Marseille.

A Bryan Habana intercept try at the end of the first half of extra time finally broke the stalemate at Stade Velodrome to send the French Top14 leaders into a third successive European final on May 2. They will face league rivals Clermont Auvergne for the second time in three seasons at Twickenham.

Before Habana's breakaway try the game had been a kicking contest between Toulon's Leigh Halfpenny and Leinster's Ian Madigan, who kicked five penalties each. The game ending 12-12 at 80 minutes and standing poised at 15-15 before the Welsh full-back added his sixth of the game and then converted the only try of the match.

It had though, been poor quality fare from the first whistle, Madigan sent the ball dead with the kick-off setting the tone for an error-strewn first-half, not helped by an afternoon of showers in Marseille that only eased as midway through the opening period.

The greasy conditions remained, however, contributing to a series of handling errors and a lack of adventure from either side - making it a disappointing spectacle for a contest between the winners of the last four European Cups.

Just as they had done in the quarter-final win over Bath a fortnight ago, Leinster relied on the boot of Ian Madigan to get their points, the inside centre levelling the scores on nine minutes after Toulon full-back Leigh Halfpenny had given the defending champions a third-minute lead.

Toulon might have been further ahead had Chris Masoe's try not been ruled out after Fergus McFadden dropped a Freddie Michalak high ball in his in-goal area, Rob Kearney was ruled to have dotted down the ball ahead of the French club's No.8.

Yet the Michalak kick had been taken with a penalty advantage after Madigan had been pinged for not rolling away and Halfpenny duly opened the scoring.

After that it was Toulon indiscipline that allowed Leinster to get a foothold in the game, Ali Williams straying offside in the 9th minute, Masoe off his feet in the 15th and the pack pulling down a lineout four minutes later. Madigan punished them all with three-pointers to give the Irish province a 9-3 lead.

The mistakes continued and Cian Healy was the next to pay the price, his indiscipline costing Leinster three points when not rolling away. Halfpenny narrowed the gap to 9-6 on the half hour, the score staying that way to half-time.

The entertainment did not improve after the interval but the tension understandably increased, Halfpenny missing his first penalty attempt of the second half, from close to the left touchline, before finding his range and levelling the scores on 56 minutes.

Then it was Madigan's time for nerves, his 60th minute kick, 15 metres in from the left touchline, striking an upright.

It was Halfpenny who broke the deadlock, slotting a penalty seven minutes later, but Leinster were not done and hit back immediately when flanker Juan Fernandez Lobbe was penalised for not releasing.

Madigan, with the stadium ringing with boos and whistles, kept his cool from long range and from left of the posts tied the game with a monster penalty to set up an even more anxious final 10 minutes.

Jimmy Gopperth had a chance to win it with two minutes to go but saw his drop-goal attempt narrowly miss before a Toulon maul led to a last-minute penalty, six metres inside their own half. And with the clock ticking past 80 minutes, Delon Armitage - a long-range kicking specialist- was given a chance to win it at the death for the champions.

His effort came up short and the game went to extra time.

An exchange of penalties between Halfpenny and Madigan kept the teams locked together but the game took a twist when Ali Williams was sin-binned by Wayne Barnes for taking Devin Toner out in mid-air at the restart following Leinster's penalty kick.

Yet it was Toulon who then took the initiative, Halfpenny inching his side back in front with a kick from distance, before the champions made the first decisive score of the game.

It came from a Leinster mistake, Madigan scooping a long pass out to midfield partner Ben Te'o, only to see it intercept by Bryan Habana - the Springbok wing taking the ball on the visitors' 10-metre line and streaking 40m to score with a try that finally put some daylight between the sides. Halfpenny added the conversion to make it a 10-point game at 25-15 with just the second half of extra time to follow.

When Williams returned from the sin bin with four minutes to go, his side were 10 points better off than at his departure, their cause helped by a Gopperth conversion that hit a post three minutes into the second half of extra time.

It was to be Leinster's last throw of the dice.

RC Toulon: L Halfpenny; D Armitage, M Bastareaud, M Giteau, B Habana; 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.

Replacements not used: D Mitchell, M Claassens.

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 (Eng)