Leinster will return to Bilbao for the Investec Champions Cup final after surviving a nerve-shredding late Toulon comeback to win 29-25 at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Tries from Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Garry Ringrose and captain Caelan Doris were enough to see Leo Cullen’s side into a ninth European final, though their 18-point lead was reduced to just four in a frantic closing 10 minutes that left the 38,555-strong crowd clinging to their seats.
Key moments
3 mins – PENALTY MISSED LEINSTER: Thomas Clarkson wins a scrum penalty against Jean-Baptiste Gros, but Harry Byrne drags his kick wide from a central position. (Leinster 0–0 Toulon)
7 mins – PENALTY MISSED TOULON: Melvyn Jaminet has a shot from around 52 metres after Andrew Porter and Caelan Doris are penalised, but the kick drifts wide. (Leinster 0–0 Toulon)
14 mins – TRY LEINSTER: Jack Conan crashes over from close range after a brilliant team move from a lineout. Robbie Henshaw makes the initial carry before Josh van der Flier gains metres out wide. Harry Byrne takes it to the line before Jamison Gibson-Park fires a pass right where Conan is too strong to stop. Byrne converts. (Leinster 7–0 Toulon)
15 mins – INJURY: Robbie Henshaw is stretchered off after being knocked out cold in a collision with Mikheil Shioshvili. Jamie Osborne replaces him. A lengthy stoppage follows, with Henshaw giving a thumbs up as he leaves the field.
16 mins – PENALTY TOULON: Garry Ringrose penalised for tackling Nacho Brex without the ball. Jaminet slots the penalty from in front of the posts. (Leinster 7–3 Toulon)
20 mins – TRY DISALLOWED LEINSTER: Gibson-Park dives over after two powerful carries from Andrew Porter, but the TMO rules a knock-on by the scrum-half as he picked the ball up. Rieko Ioane kept his foot in play by millimetres in the build-up.
25 mins – PENALTY TOULON: Doris penalised at the breakdown and Jaminet launches an absolute rocket from halfway, sailing through the posts. (Leinster 7–6 Toulon)
33 mins – TRY LEINSTER: From a tap-and-go penalty five metres out, Dan Sheehan steps off it before Gibson-Park finds Doris, who flicks a lovely offload out the back door to Josh van der Flier. The openside ploughs over. Byrne converts. (Leinster 14–6 Toulon)
35 mins – YELLOW CARD LEINSTER: Andrew Porter shown yellow for a high tackle on Mikheil Shioshvili. Toulon kick to the corner. (Leinster 14–6 Toulon)
36 mins – TRY TOULON: Toulon capitalise immediately on the extra man. Jérémy Sinzelle creates the overlap and Setariki Tuicuvu finishes in the corner. Jaminet’s conversion drifts wide. (Leinster 14–11 Toulon)
38 mins – YELLOW CARD LEINSTER: Harry Byrne is shown a second yellow card for Leinster for offside after repeated team infringements. Leinster are down to 13 players. (Leinster 14–11 Toulon)
Half-time: Leinster 14–11 Toulon.
43 mins – YELLOW CARD TOULON: Teddy Baubigny shown yellow for a high tackle on Van der Flier, levelling up the numbers temporarily.
44 mins – TRY LEINSTER: With 13 men still on the pitch, Leinster strike. Dan Sheehan taps a penalty and carries hard, Van der Flier flings a low pass that misses Jamie Osborne but falls kindly for Garry Ringrose, who collects and dives over. Ringrose takes the conversion himself with Byrne off the field, but pulls it left. (Leinster 19–11 Toulon)
48 mins – PENALTY LEINSTER: Porter and Byrne return from their yellow cards. Porter immediately wins another scrum penalty and Byrne slots the kick to extend the lead to 11 points. (Leinster 22–11 Toulon)
54 mins – INJURY: Jack Conan hobbles off and is replaced by Alex Soroka.
61 mins – PENALTY MISSED LEINSTER: After Joe McCarthy destroys a Toulon maul and Jérémy Sinzelle is penalised for a seatbelt tackle on Ringrose, Byrne misses the penalty from around 40 metres, pushing it right. His second miss from a kickable position. (Leinster 22–11 Toulon)
68 mins – TRY LEINSTER: The captain gets the crucial score. From a lineout, Joe McCarthy catches at the tail and pops down to Porter, who barges close. Gibson-Park goes blind where Caelan Doris holds off Zach Mercer to ground the ball. Byrne converts. (Leinster 29–11 Toulon)
71 mins – TRY TOULON: Toulon hit back immediately from the restart. Leinster give away a penalty and Baptiste Serin snipes over from close range after quick phases. Jaminet’s conversion hits the post but rebounds over. (Leinster 29–18 Toulon)
76 mins – TRY TOULON: Game on. A brilliant falling pass from Serin finds Tomas Albornoz, whose crossfield kick picks out Gaël Drean on the right wing. The winger outmuscles Sam Prendergast to score. Jaminet converts. Four-point game with four minutes left. (Leinster 29–25 Toulon)
79 mins – DRAMA: Drean gets into space down the right touchline after a Jaminet break, but his offload inside is knocked on by Tuicuvu with Rieko Ioane making a game-saving intervention. Leinster win the scrum and then a penalty for a no-arms tackle on Osborne, allowing Byrne to kick to touch.
Full-time: Leinster 29–25 Toulon
Match report
It was a result that avenged last season’s seismic semi-final loss to Northampton at the same venue, but one that came at considerable cost. Robbie Henshaw was stretchered off with a head injury inside the opening quarter, Jack Conan hobbled off with a knee problem in the second half, and Josh van der Flier departed for a head injury assessment. Leinster will face defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles in the final at San Mamés on 23 May.
The foundations for the win were laid by the Leinster scrum, which dominated throughout. Thomas Clarkson gave veteran French loosehead Jean-Baptiste Gros a torrid afternoon, while Player of the Match Andrew Porter was immense at the set-piece and in the loose on his return from the arm injury that had kept him sidelined since the round of 16 win over Edinburgh. Toulon were penalised five times at the scrum, with Kyle Sinckler repeatedly displeasing referee Luke Pearce.
It was a nervy opening from both sides. Harry Byrne missed an early penalty from a central position in the fourth minute before Melvyn Jaminet pushed a long-range effort wide from inside his own half. Tommy O’Brien set the tone defensively with a crunching hit on Tomas Albornoz that stopped Toulon in their tracks.
The breakthrough came in the 14th minute. A muscular rip by Doris at the breakdown invited Jamison Gibson-Park to roll out a kick, producing an attacking lineout born out of Rieko Ioane’s chase. Leinster moved the ball quickly off the set-piece, with Van der Flier finding space on the blindside before Gibson-Park delayed his pass just long enough for Conan to cut an unstoppable line and power through three tacklers. Byrne converted for a 7-0 lead.
Play was then halted for a lengthy stoppage after Henshaw was knocked out cold in a collision with Toulon number eight Mikheil Shioshvili. The Ireland centre was stretchered off in a neck brace but was able to give an encouraging thumbs-up before leaving the field. Jamie Osborne came on as his replacement.
Jaminet got Toulon on the board with a penalty in the 16th minute after Ringrose was penalised for tackling Nacho Brex without the ball. Leinster thought they had extended their lead when Gibson-Park dived over following two monstrous carries from Porter, but after a lengthy TMO check, the try was ruled out for a knock-on by the scrum-half as he picked the ball up. It was the tightest of calls, with Ioane also only just keeping his foot in play by millimetres in the build-up.
Jaminet then launched an absolute rocket of a penalty from just inside the Leinster half to close the gap to 7-6 in the 25th minute, punishing a needless infringement from Doris at the breakdown. An overcooked restart from Byrne, which went out on the full, summed up the fly-half’s difficult afternoon with the boot.
Leinster’s second try was a clinical piece of work. The lively O’Brien’s chip and chase got them moving, and Byrne’s crossfield kick to Ioane forced Tuicuvu to take it under pressure near his own try-line, where Dan Sheehan drove the winger into touch. From the resulting lineout, Toulon conceded a penalty at the maul, and a clever tap-and-go move saw Gibson-Park find Doris, who flicked a lovely offload out the back door to Van der Flier. The openside ploughed over with Byrne converting for a 14-6 lead in the 33rd minute.
What followed was a costly five-minute spell that threatened to undo all of Leinster’s good work. Porter was shown yellow for a high tackle on Shioshvili in the 35th minute. Toulon kicked to the corner and were clinical in exploiting the extra man, with Ben White switching the play to give Jérémy Sinzelle the space to put Tuicuvu away on the left wing. Within that same passage, Byrne was shown a second Leinster yellow for offside after repeated team infringements. Jaminet missed the conversion, but Leinster were suddenly down to 13 players and the lead had been cut to 14-11 at the interval.
Despite those dire circumstances, it was Leinster who came out firing in the second half. O’Brien produced a brilliant take under a high ball to put the hosts on the front foot, and they worked through an impressive sequence of phases despite being two men down. James Ryan was held up over the line, but from the resulting penalty, Toulon hooker Teddy Baubigny was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Van der Flier.
Leinster went again with a tap penalty. Sheehan carried hard before Van der Flier flung a low pass that skipped past Osborne but fell kindly for Ringrose, who collected brilliantly and barged over. The centre took the conversion himself with Byrne still off the field but pulled it left. No matter — at 19-11 with Porter about to return, the hosts had turned the tide.
When Porter did come back, he immediately won another scrum penalty. Byrne, returning from his own sin-bin, showed no ill effects and slotted the kick from 40 metres to push the lead to 22-11 in the 48th minute.
The contest became scrappy as both benches were emptied. Toulon’s 6-2 bench split began to pay dividends as Zach Mercer, Esteban Abadie and Baptiste Serin injected pace and power. Abadie burst through the heart of the Leinster defence after James Ryan was caught looking outside, but his offload was knocked on by Brex. Ioane was masterful in the tackle to shut down another Toulon surge. Gibson-Park launched a missile of a clearance kick from the base of a scrum, flipping the territorial pressure.
Byrne missed another penalty on the hour after a seatbelt tackle on Ringrose, his second miss from a kickable position, and it left the scoreboard at 22-11 when it should have been more comfortable. But the pressure eventually told when Leinster spent almost five minutes camped inside the Toulon 22. Joe McCarthy caught at the tail of a lineout and popped down to Porter, who barged close. Gibson-Park went blind, and Doris held off Mercer to ground the ball in the 68th minute. Byrne converted and at 29-11, the result appeared beyond doubt.
It was anything but. Toulon struck back immediately from the restart. Leinster conceded a penalty and Serin sniped over from close range after quick phases. Jaminet’s conversion hit the post but rebounded over to make it 29-18. Then, with Leinster’s replacements struggling to impose themselves, came the moment that almost changed everything. A brilliant falling pass from Serin — a chistera from the ground — found Albornoz, whose crossfield kick picked out Gaël Drean on the right wing. The tournament’s joint-top try scorer outmuscled Sam Prendergast, who was playing out of position on the wing, to score. Jaminet converted and with four minutes remaining, it was a four-point game.
The final minutes were almost unbearable for Leinster supporters. Jaminet powered through a tackle and found Drean, who broke down the right touchline. The winger tried to offload inside to Tuicuvu, but Ioane made a game-saving intervention, forcing the knock-on that allowed Leinster to win the scrum. Albornoz was then penalised for a no-arms tackle on Osborne, and Byrne kicked to touch to finally seal the victory.
Cullen was fired up in his post-match press conference, praising his players’ desire while taking aim at what he perceived as unfair criticism this season. He acknowledged Toulon’s quality, noting that this was the first time Leinster had ever beaten the three-time European champions in five meetings. Porter described the afternoon as incredibly special and praised the composure of the 13-man defensive effort either side of half-time.
Captain Doris admitted the crowd and coaches were on the edge of their seats but said the group were delighted to be in another final. Mignoni was left to reflect on what might have been, saying with emotion that Toulon had a match-winning chance when Drean found Tuicuvu in the closing stages, and that the failure to convert their two-man advantage either side of half-time was the decisive period.
Leinster now head to Bilbao chasing a fifth star and hoping that history at San Mamés, where they won the last of their four titles in 2018, can provide an omen. On this evidence, they will need to be considerably sharper if they are to overcome Bordeaux-Bègles, who dispatched Bath 38-26 in their own semi-final on Sunday.
Scorers
Leinster 29: Tries: Conan (14), Van der Flier (33), Ringrose (44), Doris (68). Conversions: Byrne (3/4). Penalties: Byrne (1/3).
RC Toulon 25: Tries: Tuicuvu (36), Serin (71), Drean (76). Conversions: Jaminet (2/3). Penalties: Jaminet (2/3).
Half-time: 14–11.
Yellow cards: Porter (Leinster, 35), Byrne (Leinster, 38), Baubigny (Toulon, 43).
Teams
Leinster: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Tommy O’Brien (S Prendergast 69), 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw (J Osborne 15), 11 Rieko Ioane (J Cahir 40–44), 10 Harry Byrne, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 1 Andrew Porter (J Cahir 75), 2 Dan Sheehan (R Kelleher 75), 3 Thomas Clarkson (R Slimani 70), 4 Joe McCarthy, 5 James Ryan, 6 Jack Conan (A Soroka 55), 7 Josh van der Flier (S Penny 47), 8 Caelan Doris (captain).
RC Toulon: 15 Melvyn Jaminet, 14 Gaël Dréan, 13 Nacho Brex, 12 Jérémy Sinzelle (M Ferté 71), 11 Setariki Tuicuvu, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Ben White (B Serin 54), 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros (D Brennan 61), 2 Teddy Baubigny (G Lucchesi 66), 3 Kyle Sinckler (B Gigashvili 54), 4 Corentin Mézou (M Halagahu 61), 5 David Ribbans (captain), 6 Junior Kpoku (E Abadie 54), 7 Charles Ollivon, 8 Mikheil Shioshvili (Z Mercer 54).
Player of the Match: Andrew Porter (Leinster).
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin. Attendance: 38,555.
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU).
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