Road back to European honours looks longer than ever for Leinster after latest heartbreak
LOOK BUT DON'T TOUCH: Leinster's Ciarán Frawley and head coach Leo Cullen after the Investec Champions Cup final between Leinster and Toulouse at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Defeat was always a possibility for Leinster in Saturday’s Champions Cup final.
What no-one thought possible was that the hurt of losses to La Rochelle in the last two deciders could be exceeded at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Somehow, some way, this reversal against Toulouse may be the most dispiriting of the three.
And not just for the cumulative damage.
The province has now lost three successive finals by three points, one point and after extra-time having come within a whisker of a post of winning this one at the end of normal time. They almost won this one, they looked beaten, they roused themselves again and then they ultimately came up short.
How the fates mock them.
That they were equal contributors to a game that was ridiculously compelling, unpredictable and enervating – even for the neutral – at one of the world’s best stadiums will mean absolutely zero to them. It was hard too not to think back to Paris last autumn when many of the same players came up shy against New Zealand in Paris.
That’s four defeats now in the last half-dozen European finals.
So many questions. It’s only inevitable when Leinster find themselves flailing for answers in and after the biggest of games season after season. The main one, when emotions subside and minds cool after their latest loss, is where exactly they go from here having lost again in a Champions Cup decider to French opposition.
The problem now is that Leinster have exhausted so many avenues and still failed to get the job done, no matter how narrowly. They have lost deciders in enemy territory (Marseille), on home ground (Dublin) and now in a neutral venue (London), albeit one where the last of those backdrops was overwhelmingly blue.
They have fallen short with a senior coach in Stuart Lancaster who got them playing some sublime attacking rugby and exhorted them to come out of their shells as polite public schoolboys. Now they have failed under the aegis of a no-nonsense Springbok taskmaster in Jacques Nienaber whose priority since arriving last November was a fearsome blitz defence.
They have tried to learn their lessons.
Leo Cullen loaded his bench here with 371 international caps, mindful no doubt of the manner in which they let slip the last two deciders to La Rochelle in the dying moments. They dropped all talk of ‘obsession’ with this tournament and spoke in the last week about how winning and losing doesn’t define their happiness.
It will tonight. And for the summer too.
That they took it to extra-time will only accentuate the angst. Add to that the losing margins of three points and one point in 2022 and 2023 and there is an obvious need here to avoid sweeping statements. Very little needs to have happened differently for Leinster to have won one, two or even all three of these deciders.
But they didn’t.
They might look to the Ciaran Frawley drop goal that slipped the wrong side of the post with 19 seconds of the 80 minutes to go. They will surely fume at the harsh yellow for James Lowe at the start of extra-time and rue the fact that Frawley was on the floor when Matthis Lebel scored the try that allowed the first real shaft of light on the scoreboard.
They can look over any number of officiating decisions if that’s their thing, but there is no avoiding the fact that they committed far too many errors, especially early on, failed to make anything of innumerable entries into the Toulouse 22, and turned down a number of kickable penalties in a game where every point was crucial.
Opportunities just were not taken.
The other factor, of course, was Toulouse. The Top 14 side had tries for Juan Cruz Mallia and Matthis Lebel ruled out at the start and towards the end of normal time, they defended with an intelligence and an intensity that few thought was possible, and they won this with two penalties when they had 14 men on the pitch after an extra-time red card for Richie Arnold.
That takes guts.
The Top 14 side created havoc at the breakdown and they took their penalties whenever and wherever they were offered. Like Leinster, they only managed one try, Lebel’s answered by Josh van der Flier’s in extra-time. They played ‘final’ rugby and they return now for another tilt at the league with a sixth ‘European’ star to sew onto their jerseys.
For Leinster its back to the day job with the visit of Connacht to the RDS in six days’ time. They have to secure as high a finish in the URC as possible before a turn into playoffs that now take on an extra significance for a side that will surely rail against the possibility of a third straight season with silverware.
Beyond that? The arrivals of RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett next season bring the promise of an even stronger push for the ultimate honour. Jacques Nienaber will have had the benefit of a pre-season and a full campaign in which to embed his ideas and his culture. There’s no question that they will be back, but the road there is longer now than ever.
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