Leinster rally to knock out champions
HOLDERS Exeter were knocked out of the Heineken Champions Cup after tournament heavyweights Leinster won a titanic quarter-final 34-22.
Leinster remain on course for a record fifth European title, consigning the Chiefs to a last-eight exit as English representation in this season’s competition ended.
Only Leinster, Leicester, Toulon and Saracens have successfully defended the European Cup in its 26-year history and that sizeable task proved beyond Exeter as their Irish conquerors triumphed through Jordan Larmour’s try double, his fellow wing James Lowe’s first-half touchdown, plus 17 points from Ross Byrne.
Byrne replaced Leinster and Ireland captain Johnny Sexton, who kicked an early conversion but went off in the 28th-minute before failing a head injury assessment.
Exeter led by 14 points inside the first 10 minutes following two tries by wing Tom O’Flaherty, both converted by Joe Simmonds, but their only further scores were a Dave Ewers try and Simmonds penalty as Leinster’s imperious European pedigree was once again shown off to maximum effect.
Sale’s run in the cup also came to an end with head coach Alex Sanderson pledging his team would “bounce back” from the bitter disappointment of their 45-21 defeat at La Rochelle.
A week after scoring six tries in a 57-14 demolition of the Scarlets to reach the last eight for the first time in 15 years, Sale got hit for six themselves as the Jono Gibbes and Ronan O’Gara-inspired French side laid down their credentials with a first trip into the final four.
Sanderson, whose team only trailed 18-16 at half time before La Rochelle duo Raymond Rhule and Geoffrey Doumayrou both scored two second-half tries each, said: “I thought we were at the races after an extremely competitive first half in which we gave them some relatively soft tries.
“But we weren’t in the second half and we have to be better if we want to come to places like this in the future and win.
“We had parity in most of the collisions around the field, but it went wrong for us against their set-piece power. I knew the players would keep fighting and I was proud of their effort.
“It is a learning curve for us and you have to lose games like these before you can come back and win them. This is only the beginning for us and we will bounce back.”
Sanderson took off World Cup winner Faf de Klerk with 20 minutes to go as he tried everything he could to claw back the game.
It was the first time in his 12 games in charge of the Sharks that Sanderson had seen his team concede more than four tries.
“They scored two quick tries in the second half that put us on the back foot and we weren’t sure about the slap down try in the first half,” said de Klerk.
“La Rochelle are a good team and they played a great brand of rugby. I was disappointed to come off, but I back the coaches.”
La Rochelle may not have won the Champions Cup before, but Gibbes knows what it takes to go all the way from his time coaching at Leinster and O’Gara was a two-time winner in his Munster days.
Sitting in second place in the TOP 14 they have plenty of silverware in their eye line.
“We needed a whole 80-minute performance because we knew it was going to be a stern test. We knew we had to use our strength, which is using the ball in hand,” said Gibbes.
“We have got to take confidence from the last few weeks. This will be our first semi-final and we have just created a little bit of history.” n Meanwhile, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend is set to be unveiled as the attack coach for the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa this summer.
Warren Gatland is set to travel with his Lions team in July, with his complete backroom team to be announced on Tuesday.
Townsend was offered a role by Gatland for the 2017 tour to New Zealand, but turned it down to focus on Scotland.