Poor errors, not the officiating, prevented Toulon advancing

Munster are through to the semi-finals because their opponents failed to get the basics right

Suspecting perfidy amid only English-speaking referees is not a new phenomenon and, in the past, the French have had little support when making this accusation. They might have a tad more after the way the Munster v Toulon game panned out.

You cannot, and I do not, make even a scintilla of a suggestion that there was conscious bias from any official, but the relative time spent in scrutinising some decisions, not reviewing others and the dialogue between officials left some disinterested parties struggling to explain the clear disparities.

The seemingly interminable ruling on the Conor Murray try, when Guilhem Guirado was ruled to have knocked on, contrasted sharply with the scant time it took officials to dismiss any notion that Simon Zebo had deliberately knocked the ball out of Chris Ashton’s hands as he threatened a score in the first minute.

This was the exchange between referee Nigel Owens and the TMO, Jonathan Mason, concerning the Guirado incident: TMO: “I can’t see that that’s definitely gone forward.” Owens: “It’s definitely gone forward you would say?” TMO: “I would say yes.” Whatever your view of the eventual decision, and it was probably correct, you have to say this sort of exchange is at best confusing. If you are French, you can and will think worse.

Ultimately Toulon should have won this game. They had overall ascendancy for most of the first half and, in the crucial exchanges towards the end, made incomprehensible errors such as simply not making touch when they needed to. In this regard, their replacement fly-half appears to have perfected an inverse Midas touch. It was his mistake that led to Andrew Conway having the space and time to score a wonderful solo try to take his side through.

For an experienced international player, it was a terrible error from Francois Trinh-duc and a final insult for his team-mates, Mathieu Bastareaud and Ashton.

Fabien Galthie, the Toulon head coach, will rightly wonder how every official missed Peter O’mahony’s blatant kicking of the ball out of the second row of Toulon’s scrum. This kept Toulon under pressure when they should have been playing out the final exchanges in Munster’s half.

That said, could you have guaranteed Trinh-duc would have managed to get the ball into touch? Suffice to say that the ‘Hand of Back’ might now fade into Munster folklore and, whatever the balance of decisions made by the officials, if you cannot get the basics right, you have to look at yourselves.

Of the other Irish quarterfinalists, it was not quite a repeat of Ireland’s dominant Grand Slam performance by Leinster over their English opponents Saracens, but it had similar distinguishing features. The defensive organisation and fluidity in attack bore further testament to the coaching ability of Stuart Lancaster and the defensive input of Andy Farrell.

Leinster are the most complete side in the Champions Cup and it will take a team playing at the top of their game to beat them.

The strategy of committing numbers to the breakdown to effect crucial turnovers is something that can be practised, but the decision of when to go in and when to stay out is in the

The replacement Toulon fly-half appears to have perfected an inverse Midas touch

players’ hands. Leinster do this supremely well and it negates multiple phases of play from opponents. It must be immensely frustrating to face and hugely comforting for the Irish side.

You cannot fault Saracens for their effort. They have been champions two years running and there was nothing wrong with their approach. But at the moment, Leinster are a better side.

The multiple phases that Saracens put together did not produce the mismatches in defence or space that Sarries usually force opponents to concede. Eventually they had to force plays and Leinster picked up any mistakes with alacrity.

For neutral fans the most tantalising question is whether the remaining Welsh side, Scarlets, can prevent Ireland taking this trophy. They certainly have a powerfully creative attack and a very good centre partnership in Scott Williams and Hadleigh Parkes.

In a 10-game contest, you might back them to pull off three wins against Leinster, but the point is that they are able to unlock strong and composed defences. The semi-finals should be interesting. Let us hope we do not have to talk about the officiating.