Leinster hold off late charge from Toulon to edge into Champions Cup final

They made a bit of a meal of it, but Leinster will march on Bilbao in a few weeks for their ninth Champions Cup final. Given that was where they last won this thing, in 2018, for the fourth time, they might consider the omen positive, but this semi-final, their 17th, was not a classic.

Which is not to say it was boring. Leinster are not convincing this season, and one telltale sign of a team with a confidence issue is the offering up of hope to a seemingly defeated opponent. The hosts, enjoying a knockout tie at the Aviva for the umpteenth time, went 18 points clear when Caelan Doris scored their fourth with a little more than 10 minutes to play. And then all hell broke loose.

Toulon suddenly found themselves. Baptiste Serin darted over from an attacking lineout and carry a couple of minutes later, before Gaël Dréan plucked the ball from the air ahead of Sam Prendergast, playing out of position on the wing, and stepped his way to the line. Leinster’s lead was now down to four points with as many minutes still to play.

Toulon came one more time, but Dréan forced his pass out of the tackle to Setariki Tuicuvu, the ball went to ground, and their race was run. They are hardly ripping it up themselves in the Top 14, lying in eighth place, but they have been impressive in Europe. Here, though, they were surprisingly whistled out of the contest at scrum time, Kyle Sinckler displeasing the referee Luke Pearce time and again. They failed, too, to take advantage of the 10 minutes either side of half-time that Leinster were reduced to 13. Indeed, they actually managed to concede a try in that time.

“It hasn’t been a perfect season,” said Doris. “I’m sure the crowd were on the edge of their seats at times there, but we’re delighted. We’ve got another one to look forward to.”

Leinster’s lukewarm form was manifest when they lost in Treviso last week with a lot of these same players, but it remains a safe-enough expectation that they will at the very least come at you hard and often, phase after phase. That they did from the start, scoring the first of their tries in the 13th minute.

It was classic Leinster. A smart turnover and searching punt earned an attacking lineout. Josh van der Flier found some space on the blindside, and Jack Conan picked an unstoppable line off Jamison Gibson-Park. Gibson-Park himself thought he had scored at the end of the first quarter, but his tiny fumble as he picked up the ball was spotted by the television match official.

Caelan Doris scores Leinster’s fourth try on their way to reaching the final. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho/Shutterstock

France have the best goal-kicking full-back in the world in Thomas Ramos – and they have probably got the second best too in Melvyn Jaminet. He did miss his first shot at goal, but it was inside his own half, so we will let him off that one. He succeeded with two more attempts, the second from just inside Leinster’s half, to pull the visitors back to within a point by the 25th minute.

Leinster responded with their second. Inexplicably, Tuicuvu chose not to call a mark off a Harry Byrne cross-kick – or forgot. From the lineout he conceded in so doing, another period of Leinster pressure was initiated, which culminated in a try for Van der Flier, looping round Doris from close range.

Toulon managed to wrest back some initiative as half-time approached. Andrew Porter, otherwise magnificent, caught Charles Ollivon high and received a yellow, and Toulon found some rhythm in the next attack. Jaminet and Jérémy Sinzelle handled sweetly to put Tuicuvu away on the left. Worse, Byrne was shown yellow for an infringement in the buildup.

Remarkably, it was 13-man Leinster who scored next. Ollivon turned over the ball early in the second half and away went Leinster. This time it was Teddy Baubigny who caught someone on the chin and picked up a yellow. From the tapped penalty, Garry Ringrose was put over by a bouncing pass from Van der Flier.

Byrne moved Leinster 11 points clear with a penalty five minutes later, when Toulon’s scrum was penalised for the fifth time. He missed another, for the second time in the match, on the hour, but Doris’s try a few minutes later seemed to have rendered that academic. That Leinster struggled home from there does not speak of burgeoning confidence ahead of that trip to Bilbao.