Blues take a heavyweight bout

Leinster 32 Toulouse 23:GAME OF the season duly delivered. We could anticipate as much without really tempting fate, simply because we were dealing with Leinster and Toulouse.

As was the case when this pair met in the semi-finals a year ago, this was a high-quality game between two quality sides in which the better team won. Sometimes it really is just that simple.

Then, it could be argued that Leinster met Toulouse’s A game with a B-plus, but this was closer to A-plus. This time they had a scrum, which turned the screw in the pivotal moment of the match, and they had Jonny Sexton, who had one of those days when he looked as if he could have bisected the posts from the upper tier of the stands, landing eight from eight for a 22-point haul.

Admittedly, it was something of a slow burning first-half especially before reaching a veritable crescendo in a compelling second half. The general movement, ambition and skills of both sets of players was of the highest quality.

In perhaps the pivotal spell of the match, Leinster responded by being knocked to the canvas at the start of the second half (as they had in the first) by simply upping their intensity and ambition.

Toulouse responded in type. It was like two boxers going toe to toe in the middle of the ring.

From David Skrela’s restart after Sexton had reduced the lead to 19-20, possession changed hands nine times. Cedric Heymans had a go from deep, so too Gordon D’Arcy and Luke Fitzgerald. Each side explored the full width of the pitch, both refused almost as a badge of honour to put the ball out of play.

Something had to give and however it ended had a potentially seismic effect.

Perhaps Cian Healy had benefited from being treated in the middle of it all, for he rejoined the fray and barreled through Heymans and sped away from Maxime Medard on one of those trademark gallops that energise teammates and crowd alike.

With that he was off, reluctantly, and Heinke van der Meuwe, initially introduced as a blood replacement, propelled the 130kg Census Johnston skywards and Sexton restored the lead.

Tellingly, Johnson and some of his other tight-five forwards were struggling to flood the defensive gaps as Leinster came knocking again through 14 phases in the build-up to O’Driscoll’s match-clinching try, his 30th in the competition.

Toulouse had thrown the kitchen sink at Leinster, and possibly even had the better of the collisions in the first half, but not for the first time this season, Leinster’s fitness levels and conditioning came shining through.

Once again, Richardt Straus (still sprinting away with the ball in the 80th minute), Seán O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip, back to his world-class best, augmented their big carrying with unstinting defensive and breakdown work.

As Heymans revealed afterwards: “It was my seventh semi-final and I can say it was the hardest not only because it’s the first I’ve lost. I played a lot of Test matches and Six Nations games and I rate that game very high, better than an usual Six Nations. Only the final rounds of a World Cup are played faster!”

It also said much for Leinster’s fortitude that they recovered from a freakishly soft seven-pointer, a couple of misfiring lineouts and the binning of O’Driscoll to lead 16-13 by the break.

Just five minutes in rarely can 15 players and 49,000-plus have been so stunned. Skrela’s penalty was never on target, but veered in to clip the outside of the upright and bounce wickedly over Brian O’Driscoll into the grateful arms of Florian Fritz. That said, Leinster will rue not having more than three players in the in-goal area, and what’s more not one of them was positioned at the dead ball line so as they could come onto the ball.

Toulouse’s start to the second half was even more menacing, Louis Picamoles baring over from the lively Jean-Marc Doussain’s offload to score off a scrum as Yannick Nyanga held O’Brien back off the ball. The touch judge, Stuart Terheege, missed that and the ball clearly emerging on the blind side of a Toulouse scrum when Isaac Boss pounced for what could have been a breakaway try.

In response, Leinster seven-pointers were the definition of team tries and were the culmination of compelling, irresistible passages of sustained carrying and recycling. Leinster went through 18 phases for Jamie Heaslip’s try which put them in front for the first time, the number eight initiating it all when charging off Leo Cullen’s lineout take and then completing with a close-range pick off Sexton’s carry and a worm-like reach for the line.

Similarly, Heaslip was again the launching pad for the 14-phase try finished off by O’Driscoll when driving off the base of a scrum after Sexton had again bravely taken the ball up.

That was the zenith of an extraordinary 15-minute response by Leinster to the Picamoles try during which the Blues scored 13 unanswered points.

Joe Schmidt highlighted the loosehead “tag team”, but there was also vital contributions off the bench from Shane Jennings, Boss (who quickened things up and energised Leinster’s attacking game) and even Fergus McFadden in his 10-minute cameo.

Guy Noves emptied his bench too as Toulouse would come knocking again, as you knew they would, and when getting back to within six points unleashed their offloading game until their young replacement prop Johnson Falefa found himself stretching for a pass in midfield from Nicolas Bezy.

Fittingly, Sexton and Leinster had the final word. A blue day, and now one game from blue heaven.

Scoring sequence: 5 minsFritz try, Skrela con 0-7; 10 minsSexton pen 3-7; 12 minsSkrela drop goal 3-10; 15 minsSexton pen 6-10; 30 minsHeaslip try, Sexton con 13-10; 38 minsSkrela pen 13-13; 40 (+2) minsSexton pen 16-13; 44 minsPicamoles try, Skrela con 16-20; 49 minsSexton pen 19-20; 55 minsSexton pen 22-20; 59 minsO'Driscoll try, Sexton con 29-20; 75 minsBezy pen 29-23; 81 minsSexton pen 32-23.

LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross; L Cullen (capt), N Hines; K McLaughlin, S O'Brien, J Heaslip. Replacements: H Van Der Merwe for Healy, S Jennings for McLaughlin, I Boss for Reddan (all 53 mins), F McFadden for Fitzgerald (57-68 mins), S Wright for Ross (74 mins). Not used: J Harris-Wright, D Toner, I Madigan. Sinbinned: O'Driscoll (37-47).

TOULOUSE: C Heymans; V Clerc, F Fritz, C Poitrenaud, M Medard; D Skrela, J Doussain; J-B Poux, W Servat, C Johnston; Y Maestri, P Albacete; J Bouilhou (cap), Y Nyanga, L Picamoles. Replacements: D Human for Poux, T Dusautoir for Nyanga (both 46 mins), Y Jauzion for Fritz, G Lamboley for Maestri (both 61 mins), S Sowerby for Picamoles (65 mins), J Falefa for Johnston (68 mins), N Bezy for Skrela (both 68 mins), V Lacombe for Servat (78 mins).

Referee: Dave Pearson(England)