Cullen’s ominous warning as Toulouse reign is ended

LEINSTER head coach Leo Cullen acknowledged there is still scope for growth within his side despite their convincing 40-17 Heineken Champions Cup semi-final win over Toulouse at the Aviva Stadium.

The defending champions had already knocked out two Irish provinces – Ulster and Munster – to reach the last four, outlasting the latter in a dramatic penalty shootout at the Dublin venue last week.

Toulouse struggled to cope with the pace of the hosts’ attack, with James Lowe, the tournament’s top scorer this season, claiming two of their four tries.

Leinster recovered from Antoine Dupont’s sixth-minute breakaway score to lead 23-10 at half-time.

Lowe and Josh van der Flier both touched down and captain Jonathan Sexton kicked 13 points.

The unrelenting speed of Leinster’s play left Toulouse scrambling to plug leaks and they also lost lock Emmanuel Meafou to the sin-bin.

Lowe’s 49th-minute effort, his 10th of the European campaign, was cancelled out by Toulouse replacement Selevasio Tolofua with 15 minutes remaining.

Ugo Mola’s men kept plugging away, but a closing try from Hugo Keenan, on the back of a Ross Byrne penalty, sealed Leinster’s place in the May 28 decider.

After watching his charges close out an impressive victory, Cullen said: “Credit to the lads, there was lots of really good stuff in the game. They threw the kitchen sink at them, but Toulouse hung in and hung in.

“They’re always a constant threat. You can see that in the first half, where we’re attacking in their 22, we lose possession and they’re gone the length of the field (for Dupont’s score). That constant threat was there the whole time.

“For our guys, I thought it was a good performance overall. There’s still room for growth as always, but to deliver a big performance in a semi-final, it’s pleasing.”

After claiming their fifth European crown last year, Toulouse have fallen short in their quest for back-to-back titles and head coach Mola admitted Leinster were very much deserving of their win.

“Today there are too many things that separated us from Leinster,” he said.

“We failed to stem the blue waves. We came across a much better team than us.

“You have to know how to learn from it. Leinster have been at the highest level for 20 years and the only time we beat them in the finals was at home.

“We know that to beat this kind of team, you have to be at your best. That was far from the case today in terms of freshness, speed, change of pace.

“Congratulations to this Leinster team who achieved an XXL performance.”