WAY TOU GO
Leinster blitz the reigning champions to reach final
Leinster Toulouse BY LEINSTER swarmed tired Toulouse at the Aviva Stadium to reach a sixth Heineken Champions Cup final.
Leo Cullen’s Blues will face Ronan O’gara’s La Rochelle or Johnny Sexton’s former club Racing 92 in the final in Marseille on Saturday week after Sexton pulled the strings in an impressive victory.
Victory in the south of France would see the Cullen’s side equal Toulouse’s five-star total in Europe’s premier club competition.
But there was nothing even about yesterday’s semi as the province attempts to lift the trophy for the first time in four years – and put to rights the disappointment of their only final loss to date, the 2019 reverse to Saracens.
The visitors drew first blood with Antoine Dupont’s 95metre breakaway effort in the seventh minute.
But in reality Toulouse lacked the sparkle that earned them the top prize last season – and that was no surprise after they needed extra-time and penalty kicks to dispatch Munster in their epic quarter-final of a week earlier.
Toulouse skills coach Jerome
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Kaino described Leinster’s display as “ruthless”, adding “if they play like that against any team, they’ll be hard to beat”.
The Blues’ gameplan, as delivered by Cullen and Stuart Lancaster, was to go for the jugular in the first half like they had done so successfully a week earlier against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.
They shrugged off Dupont’s early strike and, using lightning fast ruck speed, left the Top 14 giants for dead with some devastating attacking moves.
Sexton was at the heart of it, as was Toulouse’s two-try tormentor James Lowe. Winger Jimmy O’brien was held up just short of the line in the opening moments and a real try chance went abegging when Caelan Doris failed to match his break with the right pass to Hugo Keenan.
But Leinster crossed for their first try in the 11th minute.
Having successfully split the posts with two penalty kicks, Sexton aimed for the corner with another and from a lineout maul and strong carries by Robbie Henshaw and Josh van der Flier, Lowe took a pass from Sexton to score.
Worryingly for Leinster, the impressive Tadhg Furlong limped off in the 17th minute but the Blues added a second try soon after.
Ross Molony released Sexton who whipped the ball to van der Flier who tumbled over to score.
Leinster looked to increase their advantage either side of the break after Emmanuele Meafou
was pinged for the third time for taking out Jamison Gibson-park at the breakdown.
It wasn’t until moments after the lock returned that the hosts scored their third try, a superb counter-attacking effort tapped down by Lowe.
A Selevasio Tolofua reply kept the game alive as a contest, Toulouse 13 points behind with 14 minutes left.
Hopes of a historic comeback were snuffed out through Ross Byrne’s 75th minute penalty and that was followed by Hugo Keenan’s last minute try that Byrne converted. LEINSTER: Tries: Lowe 2, Van der Flier, Keenan; Cons: Sexton 3, Byrne; Pen: Sexton 3, Byrne. TOULOUSE: Tries: Dupont, Tolofua; Cons: Ramos 2; Pen: Ramos.