Leinster suffer fourth straight loss in Europe after Toulon comeback

Leinster wrote an unwanted chapter in their club history this evening, their second loss to reigning Champions Cup holders Toulon inside six days condemning the province to a fourth consecutive European defeat for the first time.

By Brendan O’Brien, Aviva Stadium

Leinster 16 Toulon 20

Leinster wrote an unwanted chapter in their club history this evening, their second loss to reigning Champions Cup holders Toulon inside six days condemning the province to a fourth straight European defeat for the first time.

On the face of it then, another depressing occasion for the province and yet they were superb in the opening half, amassing a 16-5 half-time lead before succumbing to a second-half onslaught from the side that has usurped them as continental galacticos.

As was the case last week, Leinster opened brilliantly, taking the game to their vaunted opponents with intensity and speed of thought and movement and extracting reward for their efforts in the form of a Jonathan Sexton penalty after eleven minutes.

The pressure told again two minutes later when Toulon No.8 Duane Vermeulen was binned for deliberately killing the ball at a ruck after a Leinster breakaway half the length of the pitch that began with a thumping hit by Mike McCarthy on Romain Taofifenua.

The Toulon lock was helped off soon after, but Leinster needed a number of chances to claim the try they merited thanks to legal and illegal Toulon defending and their own propensity to butcher a succession of overlaps and other openings.

The dam finally burst 18 minutes in with a Leinster lineout inside the Toulon 22 that ended with a maul over the line, but McCarthy was denied the honours on his 300th professional appearance by referee Wayne Barnes who awarded the penalty try.

With Sexton adding the conversion from under the posts the score sat at 10-0.

Leinster lost Mike Ross to injury soon after, but even worse was the concession of a try to Juan Smith in Toulon’s first concerted period of pressure. Isa Nacewa opened the door by shooting out of the line and failing to intercept, leaving the South African with a simple touch down.

Eric Escande missed the routine conversion, however, and Leinster ended the half on a high by applying further pressure which Toulon could only relieve with further indiscretions that were punished by two more Sexton penalties.

They led 16-5 by the interval with Ian Madigan replacing Ben Te’o shortly before the pause but, nevertheless, in an ideal position to register a first victory in Pool Five after three opening defeats that left them all but out of contention regardless of this result.

Toulon, having lost their first game away to Wasps, could ill afford another defeat on their ledger either and they responded in kind by dominating the third quarter. Like Leinster, they spurned at least a pair of easy five-pointers before being awarded a penalty try after 59 minutes.

At 16-12, with the conversion from Tom Taylor, it was game on again. Leinster’s struggles were evident in a penalty count against them that stood at just one at the break but which climbed exponentially to match Toulon’s nine a good fifteen minutes before the close.

By the end, they lost that count 13-11.

Leinster have now failed to score in the last 63, 43, 55 and 40 minutes in four of their last five games

— Brendan O'Brien (@byBrendanOBrien) December 19, 2015

Just as costly was the ease with which their pack was once again shunted aside at a maul after 66 minutes and that allowed replacement prop Anthony Etrillard to dot down and snatch a one-point lead for the visitors who failed to tack on the extra two.

Taylor did stretch the lead to four with a 74th-minute penalty and a Leinster side playing the last minutes without the sinbinned Jordi Murphy saw Mamuka Gorgodze go over for what would have been a try bonus score had the TMO not ruled it out.

Quite the turnaround then.

Leinster: R Kearney; D Kearney, B Te’o, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; J McGrath, R Strauss, M Ross; D Toner, M McCarthy; R Ruddock, J van der Flier, J Heaslip. Replacements: M Moore for Ross (25); I Madigan for Te’o (39); C Healy for McGrath and S Cronin for Strauss (both 46); T Denton for McCarthy (57); Z Kirchner for Sexton (67); J Murphy for Heaslip (70); N McCarthy for Reddan (77).

Toulon: D Armitage; B Habana, M Bastareaud, M Nonu, D Mitchell; M Giteau, E Escande; F Fresia, G Guirado, M Stevens; J Suta, R Taofifenua; J Smith, S Armitage, D Vermeulen. Replacements: K Mikautadze for Taofifenua (13-20 and 51); X Chiocci for Fresia, A Etrillard for Guirado and L Chilachava for Stevens (all 46); T Taylor for D Armitage (47); JM Fernandez Lobbe for Smith (57); M Gorgodze for Suta (67).

Referee: W Barnes (England).