Brilliant Lowe leads a Blue wave to overwhelm Toulouse
Icing on the cake: Leinster's Hugo Keenan celebrates after scoring the final try of the game.
Leinster closed in on a fifth European star as they brushed title holders Toulouse aside to reach the Heineken Champions Cup final with a ruthless four-try performance in Dublin on Saturday.
A week on from going the distance to overcome Munster in the same stadium, Toulouse had opened the try-scoring through Antoine Dupont on seven minutes but otherwise had no answer to Leinster’s relentless blue wave of breakdown accuracy and tempo.
James Lowe scored two tries with one apiece for Josh van der Flier and Hugo Keenan backed up by a perfect goal-kicking contribution of three penalties and three conversions from captain Johnny Sexton before Ross Byrne added a penalty and conversion to send the four-time champions into a sixth final, their first since 2019, in Marseille on May 28. There they will play the winner’s of Sunday’s semi-final between French sides La Rochelle and Racing 92 in Lens.
Cheered on by the vast majority of the 42,076 in attendance as the Aviva Stadium turned from a sea of red last week to an ocean of blue on Saturday, Leinster had started with the same high tempo and intent that had left Leicester Tigers reeling in the first half of last Saturday’s quarter-final at Welford Road.
Their intensity at the breakdown gave scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park lightning-quick ball to distribute and it quickly unsettled Toulouse, the home side’s first attacking set inside the opposition 22 producing three penalty advantages, the most favourable position giving captain Sexton a simple opening kick from in front of the posts on four minutes.
Cullen’s side were looking in irresistible form and quickly forced a knock-on advantage to launch into another attack yet somehow were made to pay as loose ball on Toulouse’s five-metre line was pounced on by Dupont, who converted the turnover into five points in a flash, running the length of the field to score the opening try. Thomas Ramos’s conversion pushed the French champions into a 7-3 lead and quietened the Aviva Stadium crowd but not for long.
Leinster wasted little time in returning to the front foot, Sexton slotting a penalty on 12 minutes as their quick ruck ball again tempted Toulouse forwards into rash decisions, lock Emmanuel Meafou the culprit this time. And when the five-time winners strayed offside on their 22, Sexton kicked for the left corner. Their starter play reaped rewards as they went to the maul, then sent the ball back to the blindside putting it through van der Flier and Robbie Henshaw to Sexton, whose instant pop pass put Lowe over the line on 15 minutes. Toulouse looked unable to live with Leinster’s incredible tempo and recycling speed, just 1.5 seconds per ruck in the build-up to their first try.
Sexton’s conversion gave his side a 13-7 lead but Leinster suffered a blow when tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong hobbled out of the game before the restart. The scrum had already been under pressure from a pack that had demolished several Munster scrums on the same pitch in their quarter-final epic seven days earlier but Leinster’s accuracy was giving them little opportunity to flex their muscles.
The home side stretched its lead further before the first quarter was up as Toulouse were wrong-footed by an excellent pass from lock Ross Molony, changing the point of attack by sending the ball out the back door for Sexton. The skipper darted into the 22 once more with a deceptive dummy, delaying his pass perfectly for van der Flier to run onto, the Ireland openside flanker’s strong carry having enough power to take him over the line through his tacklers. The captain’s conversion put Leinster into a 20-7 before an exchange of penalties, and a a yellow card for Toulouse lock Meafou on 36 minutes, sent the Irish province into a 23-10 half-time lead.
Their dominance continued into the second half with the only surprise it took Leinster 10 minutes to claim their third try of the afternoon. Gibson-Park was the spark, charging down opposite number Dupont’s attempt at a clearing kick from his 22 and Leinster’s pack quickly went up another gear, powering their way through the phases to the tryline. With the visiting defence narrow, the ball went out wide to the left with Lowe handed a long pass to run in unopposed. Sexton’s conversion gave Leinster a 30-10 lead with half an hour remaining.
Toulouse might have wilted, given their epic effort to overcome Munster a week earlier but they rallied with admirable commitment, replacement back-rower Sebastain Tolofua finishing an excellently marshalled driving maul in the right corner and Ramos’s touchline conversion giving hope with the deficit reduced to 30-17.
Yet those 100 minutes of rugby eventually told as Toulouse players began to drop with cramp and fatigue and when they conceded a penalty inside their 22, Byrne, on for Sexton, kicked Leinster back into the comfort zone of a 33-17 lead with six minutes left.
Hugo Keenan’s superb try in the 79th minute delivered the icing on the cake with Byrne’s conversion bringing down the curtain on a superbly efficient team performance as Leinster booked their tickets for Marseille in two weeks.
H Keenan; J O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw (C Frawley, 64), J Lowe; J Sexton – captain (R Byrne, 68), J Gibson-Park (L McGrath, 68); A Porter (C Healy, 68), R Kelleher (D Sheehan, 46 - HIA), T Furlong (M Ala’alotoa, 16); R Molony, J Ryan (J McCarthy, 77); C Doris, J van der Flier (R Ruddock, 72), J Conan.
T Ramos; J C Mallia, P Fouyssac (Z Holmes, 62), P Ahki (M P Relo, 56), M Lebel; R Ntamack, A Dupont; C Baille (R Neti, 52-69), J Marchand – captain (P Mauvaka, 52), D Aldegheri (D Ainu’u, 56); Rory Arnold, E Meafou (J Tekori, 62); R Esltadt (T Flament, 56), F Cros, A Jelonch (S Tolofua, 52).
Meafou 36-46
Karl Dickson (England)
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