STARS ALIGN AS ULTIMATE RIVALRY GETS FINAL FLING

The Blues rule in the straight head-to-head in this long-running affair, but the French aristocrats have an extra star on their shirt – if the Irish province win, they will be on a par and in the ascendancy

Toulouse and Leinster. A rivalry like no other. True, they already boa st foes within their own lands, where families are split by bloodlines thanks to the footprints of ancient history. But in the case of Toulouse and Leinster, their meetings may only be a modern phenomenon, but it is a conflict that supersedes internecine warfare.

The intertwined stories of Toulouse and Leinster since the beginning of professionalism in the world’s greatest club rugby competition have engaged rapt attention across the continent.

They have met 14 times; Toulouse have faced Leinster more than any other side in European combat; only Leicester (15) have appeared more often on Leinster’s radar.

The Irish province lead the head-to-head 8-6, but since their first loss to the inaugural champions, they have chased the French aristocrats’ immortality.

They have got closer than anyone else; in 2018, with their fourth final success, they matched the number of stars upon each breastplate, four in all.

But despite winning three semi-finals in succession against Toulouse, a series of bruising defeats, and a 2021 final win for the French, claiming their fifth title, means Leinster remain, so tantalisingly, still one adrift.

Another compelling chapter awaits today and, so fittingly it would seem, in the final itself.

An opportunity for Leinster to draw level? Or a chance for Toulouse to restate their greatness? History reminds us that these questions will be resolved by thrill and spills, beauty and brutality.

The stars, from all corners of the globe, are aligned. Only one star will be available to the winner.

THE FIRST TIME September 7, 1997, Donnybrook, Leinster 25 Toulouse 34

Coach Mike Ruddock’s message was simple: “16 weeks. 62 squad sessions. You are ready!” Almost, but not quite.

The reigning champions were not always a vintage who travelled well in early autumn and the home side occasionally seemed primed to profit.

The visitors unfurled a galaxy of stars – Didier Lacroix, Xavier Garbajosa, Stéphane Ougier. Leinster were merely yeomanry then, but they scored the day’s best try through Alan McGowan.

Their best performers were a trio of players who had enjoyed second-division club rugby when Toulouse were winning the inaugural European Cup – Declan O’Brien, Reggie Corrigan and Trevor Brennan. “No respect!” we heard Brennan bray. Guy Noves would take note as the Kildare native would end up at the French club.

Different times. Ruddock wanted McGowan to kick for touch in the fierce wind instead of for goal – and repeatedly missing – but he was too far away to get the message and he had no mobile phone to tell his assistant Kurt McQuilkin.

We were there, drink and cigarette in hand, prowling the terraces, with not a notion of what made professional rugby different from amateur rugby.

THE NEW BREED September 29, 2001, Donnybrook, Leinster 40 Toulouse 10

Irish rugby was swallowing hard after the delayed Six Nations trauma inflicted at Murrayfield a week earlier, but a nascent Leinster hardcore were wallowing gleefully beneath Friday night lights as their stars shone.

None rose higher than a young Leo Cullen, skyscrapingly dominating the skies while another former schoolboy mate, Brian O’Driscoll, scorched the earth with a pair of tries.

O’Driscoll, alongside fellow three-quarters Denis Hickie and Girvan Dempsey, had played against Scotland in painful defeat alongside a struggling Shane Horgan; Cullen’s partner in the ‘row’, Malcolm O’Kelly, had also featured, along with Emmet Byrne from the bench.

They were different animals here. The best try of the sparkling evening was the fourth and last from another young tyro who would backbone the back-line in future provincial – and Irish triumphs – Gordon D’Arcy.

After two attempts, this was a notable first triumph against the aristocrats; they would lose the return fixture on French soil. But their day in the sun would come.

THE TIDE TURNS April 1, 2006, Le Stadium, Toulouse 35 Leinster 41 (QF)

Our memories of this day are seared with hot flush es, an internal air strike prompting a mad dash for a train to Toulouse, with a fellow fan struggling with a heavy weight of body, dripping with sweat.

The action was steamier still. Champagne rugby under the burning yellow orb, Leinster’s maestros applauded off the pitch by admiring home fans, hundreds of them waiting around to collect their autographs in the aftermath.

The opening try set the stage, not from the end of the earth, perhaps, but a short bus ride away. Denis Hickie, out of favour with Ireland, was out of this world, skating down the wing for an 80-yard try to thrill the 5,000 travelling fans.

Drico showcasing the world’s first sidestep while running backwards. The late pushed pass from D’Arcy to Dempsey, a fingertip away from a Jean-Baptise Elissalde intercept and a try concession, characterised the bravado.

Felipe Contepomi conducted the orchestra, the backpacking nomad Cameron Jowitt marauding as the tigerish Keith Gleeson tackled anything that moved. It moved the soul of anyone who loved sport.

“Every time we scored, they pulled another one out of the bag,” Yannick Nyanga told us in the stunned aftermath. They had been done at their own game.

“We have to win it now,” D’Arcy told me. Munster awaited, a match-up made in heaven, but Leinster would be brought crashing to earth and would have to wait to consummate their new love affair.

This announced their European intentions, but they would remain pretensions for a while yet.

THE KNOCKOUT PUNCH May 1, 2010, Toulouse 26 Leinster 16, Le Stadium (SF)

Their eighth meeting, but a first in the semi-finals.

The eventual winners packed the better punch, dethroning the current champions, who had seized their seminal title in Murrayfield a year before.

A torrent of rain portended a grunt-fest; Leinster’s scrum splintered, Cian Healy whipped off after half an hour of toil against Daan (In)Human; CJ van der Linde given the May Day mayday; Mike Ross remaining unused for 76 minutes despite Stan Wright’s struggles.

Leinster trailed 23-9 late on until Jamie Heaslip, who had announced himself in this fixture four years earlier, finished a stunning try, even though he couldn’t complete the improbable comeback.

Almost 35,000, predominantly French folks, still shuddered at the memory of ’06. A sign of respect.

O’Driscoll’s stunning cross-field kick found D’Arcy; swift recycling ensued; a wide pass needed to find a loitering Heaslip; Isa Nacewa, an Antipodean messiah enjoying a first coming, supplied it.

Leinster had little on the bench; Toulouse almost an international sevens side.

We conducted our post-match with one of them, Shaun Sowerby, in the dressing room, as we had used to do in Croke Park in the ‘90s. Beer and cigarettes and dictaphones.

A potential All-Ireland final went abegging as we watched Munster undone on the same weekend in San Sebastian against Biarritz. Aside from the results, it was quite the rugby trip.

Toulouse now had four titles; Leinster one. Michael Cheika would be gone. Who would be next? And what might happen then?

THE MODERN EPIC April 30, 2011, Leinster 32 Toulouse 23, Lansdowne Road (SF)

If ’06 was awe-inspiring, this was simply awesome. A modern classic in Dublin 4 as Joe Schmidt stamped his authority on his new province and they in turn announced themselves as genuine dynastic contenders.

Ironically, as captain Leo Cullen later revealed, Leinster made a hames of their pre-match buildup under the precise Kiwi and were slow to the contest too, conceding an asinine early score, Florian Fritz pouncing on a David Skrela penalty kick that had caromed off the wood.

Louis Picamoles added a second while Seán O’Brien clattered Nyanga; the crowd were punch drunk, too.

Their revival almost symbiotically matched that of their heroes; O’Driscoll pouncing for a try after a binning for preventing one; Heaslip with a massive score too; Sexton kicking eight from eight, Healy now the inhuman scrummager; Daan Human now merely human.

It was, at once, a shoot-out and a dogfight, the crowd interacting almost as breathlessly as the

participants. Toulouse contrived a comeback to within four; Leinster concocted a cool escape to victory.

“The sun will shine tomorrow,” said Guy Noves, in that mournful way wizened Frenchmen do. Little did he know how many dark hours his famous club would have to endure before the dawn.

Leinster were the supremacists, for now. “No guts, no glory,” said Heaslip. They would need the whole lot against Northampton in Cardiff.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK April 21, 2019, Leinster 30 Toulouse 12, Lansdowne Road (SF)

Their longest drought between drinks with each other had ended with bookmarked home wins in the pool stages, presaging a second semi-final meeting.

The previous year, Leinster had drawn level on four European titles with a Toulouse institution upon whom the crown had slipped during a torrid decade.

This encounter was defined in 10 breathtaking phases in the 13th minute, combining beauty and brutality, as James Lowe powered through from a rejuvenated Seán O’Brien to complete a scintillating score.

Late introduction Scott Fardy scored twice in a display of relentless defence and clinical attack beneath an azure sky, embodying new assistant Stuart Lancaster’s coaching playbook.

Sexton, so disgruntled in green during a brief era of pre-World Cup slippage, was imperious.

Truly, they had trumped the side they had cursed for a generation and more. In the final, though, Saracens would deny them the chance to claim the fifth star that might definitively crown them the best of all time.

SEMI-FINAL SUPERIORITY CONFIRMED May 14, 2023, Leinster 41 Toulouse 22, Lansdowne Road (SF)

A third successive semi-final meeting after wins in 2019 and 2022. Surely not a hat-trick of successes? Mais bien sur.

Toulouse had reclaimed their European eminence with a fifth star in 2021, but in this rivalry, Leinster edged 8-6 ahead in the headto-head. Antoine Dupont scored a stunning, characteristic try, but Leinster scored four of them. Tadhg Furlong’s early departure was not damaging on the day, but it would evoke difficulties against bigger beasts, leading to another lost final.

Ross Molony, one of those players largely unheralded beyond the province’s borders, was arguably the stand-out performer on the day, an exhibition of understated physicality and deftly expressed skill.