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Leinster thrash Toulouse to reach another Heineken Champions Cup final
By PA
Ruthless Leinster reached another Heineken Champions Cup final after they scored 28 points during two sin-bin periods to beat Toulouse 41-22 at the Aviva Stadium.
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Three tries in 10 frenetic first-half minutes – two of them from Jack Conan – had Leinster well on course for the May 20 decider, which will take place at the same venue.
It was 27-14 at half-time with five-time champions Toulouse, who were hoping to exorcise the demons of 2019 and 2022 semi-final defeats in the Irish capital, touching down through Pita Ahki and Emmanuel Meafou.
But despite a Thomas Ramos penalty and a late Jack Willis effort, Toulouse were undone by Rodrigue Neti’s sin-binning, during which Josh Van der Flier and replacement Jason Jenkins both crossed to move the Irish province within reach of a fifth European title.
Charlie Ngatai’s daring break from deep led to Ross Byrne’s fourth-minute penalty, but Toulouse hit back with the game’s first try.
A brilliant 50-22 kick from Ramos gave them field position before centre Ahki exploited a three-on-two overlap to score in the left corner.
After a second Byrne penalty, Toulouse suffered a double blow when centre Pierre-Louis Barassi hobbled off and Ramos saw yellow for a deliberate knock-on.
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Conan duly barged over from a Jamison Gibson-Park pass, and the number eight then dummied past Juan Cruz Mallia to complete his brace. Byrne added both conversions for a 20-7 lead.
Jimmy O’Brien was a whisker away from a third try, just losing control of the ball in a tackle from Mallia.
Nonetheless, a blunder at the back of a Toulouse maul – replacement Paul Graou’s pass hit Jack Willis flush in the face – allowed Sheehan to explode over from 25 metres out. Byrne swept over the extras.
Despite losing Antoine Dupont’s influence at half-back in a reshuffled back-line, the visitors rallied. Scrum half Graou sent lock Meafou powering over for Ramos to convert.
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At the start of a cagier second half, influential centre Ngatai’s ball-dislodging tackle on Peato Mauvaka helped to repel Toulouse’s early surge.
Although Ramos made it a 10-point game, Toulouse’s momentum was sucked away by replacement prop Neti’s head-led contact with Van der Flier at a ruck. It resulted in a yellow card.
A power-packed lineout drive saw van der Flier score on the hour mark. Byrne curled over the conversion for a 34-17 advantage.
Leinster’s strong bench helped last season’s runners-up to lift the pace, Luke McGrath giving South African Jenkins a straightforward finish in the 63rd minute.
Impressive fly-half Byrne’s conversion brought his tally to 16 points, before English flanker Willis gained some consolation from an 82nd-minute maul.
I thought Leinster's discipline in the 1st half was a key factor, they did not concede a penalty until around the 35th minute. Toulouse had conceded 5 in 25 minutes, Leinster's 6 points off the back of that took the sting out of Toulouse's early try. Great team performance by Leinster, I cannot think of a particular player that performed better than anyone else, which shows their quality in all positions.
What a joke !
Toulouse were bereft of plan B when they lost Barrassi, basically a lack of organization & planning, if this is an example of how France will operate in the w/c, then they will not compete with the other top teams.