Leinster v Toulon: Five takeaways as ‘scrum master’ delivers but comfortable-looking home win ends with ‘nervous final few minutes’
Garry Ringrose celebrate his try for Leinster and Andrew Porter, inset, shows off his player of the match award (INPHO/Ben Brady and Nick Elliott)
Following Leinster’s 29-25 win over Toulon in their Investec Champions Cup clash at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, Planet Rugby picks out five takeaways from the intense action.
Top line
Leinster came into this fixture having never beaten Toulon on the pitch (they lost to the French four times between 2014 and 2015 and the round of 16 ‘victory’ in 2021 came via the EPCR boardroom due to a covid-enforced cancellation), but that anomaly in their Champions Cup history has now been rectified.
No one can quibble with the outcome, even though there was only an edge-of-the-seat, four-point margin between the teams at the finish. This was a match Leinster led all the way to the finish from their 13th-minute opening score through Jack Conan and they had way more ambition in their play than what their French visitors produced until they became desperate and rallied late from being 29-11 in arrears.
The opening half was an early tale of two missed penalties – one apiece – and then tries from Conan and Josh van der Flier (on 32 minutes) sandwiching the one scrubbed out for a Jamison Gibson-Park knock-on.
The exchanges were bruising. A flavour was the juddering fifth-minute Tommy O’Brien tackle on Tomas Albornoz and the crowd were wincing again 10 minutes later when Mikheil Shioshvili’s collision on the carry left Robbie Henshaw lying on the floor and exiting the fray on a medical cart after lengthy treatment.
Toulon had penalty points in the 16th and 26th minute through Melvyn Jaminet, and they came alive approaching the interval, seeking to cut down a 14-6 deficit. Another Shioshvili carry tempted Andrew Porter into a yellow-carded tackle and the move that immediately followed led to Setariki Tuicuvu’s 37th-minute unconverted try as well as a Harry Byrne yellow card for offside.
Leinster returned knowing they would have to make do with just 13 players until the 47th minute. That should have spelt trouble with their lead reduced to 14-11. Instead, in the tournament ‘Where Extraordinary Happens’, according to its marketing jargon, the Irish side were remarkably defiant and produced the game-winning period.
Pressure from the restart generated the rich harvest of a Teddy Baubigny yellow on 43 minutes, swiftly followed by a Garry Ringrose try. Then, with their cards expired, another penalty win from their dominant scrum allowed the returned Byrne to make it 22-11.
The arm-wrestle next endured a lull with Toulon growing increasingly frustrated before Caelan Doris dived over 13 minutes from time. Eighteen points ahead, Leinster should have been comfortably home and hosed but their ticket to the final in Bilbao wasn’t yet punched.
Seventieth and 76th minute tries from Baptiste Serin and Gael Drean gave the French a lifeline that was only extinguished when a pass from Drean to Tuicuvu was knocked on thanks to the intervention of the scrambling Rieko Ioane.
Leinster boss the scrum
With Tadhg Furlong absent through injury and fellow prop Porter only back from a knock picked up 27 days ago versus Edinburgh, the pre-game consensus was that Toulon’s way into the contest would be in the tight five, particularly at the scrum.
It was a prediction that was wide of the mark. While Toulon’s muscle men were combative in general play, they finished the opening half with three scrum penalties against them (in the third, 27th and 40th minute) and their defensive maul also infringed, giving Leinster the situation where they tapped on the five-metre and worked the move that ended with Van der Flier’s try.
The set-piece wound wasn’t staunched in the second half as further scrum penalties went Leinster’s way on 48 and 53 minutes; the 48th minute infringement was punished by Byrne splitting the posts off the tee.
With Kyle Sinckler hooked, Toulon finally won a scrum penalty not long after, but Leinster finished the match with the upper hand. With the gap down to four points, a 79th-minute scrum just outside the home side’s 22 was to prove critical.
Sub props Jerry Cahir and Rabah Slimani stood up to the pressure and Leinster won a penalty when they went on the carry in the middle of the pitch after the ball was played away from the scrum.
Props seldom win player of the match awards, but it was fitting here that scrum master and all-action Porter was handed the best man medal after the finish.
Not so hot Byrne
Plenty of the commentary about Leinster’s juddery season has surrounded the No.10 jersey. As with Ireland, Sam Prendergast has had his struggles provincially, resulting in Leo Cullen selecting Byrne as his semi-final starter.
It was a massive vote of confidence in the 27-year-old. Twelve months ago, when Leinster played a semi-final versus Northampton, Byrne was away on loan at Bristol trying to rediscover zest in his game.
There were fears his Leinster career was in jeopardy, but he has since put that concern to bed and is now part of the furniture again at the Irish club. The trouble is, he can’t reflect on his performance against Toulon with a full degree of satisfaction.
His passing game was fine, but there were nervous examples elsewhere. It started with a straightforward missed penalty kick to open the scoring, and a penalty touchfinder not long after didn’t go out of play.
There was solace in how his crosskick resulted in Tuicuvu giving up the lineout that was the initial catalyst for Leinster’s second try, but Byrne then found himself sin-binned for a needless offside, reducing his team to 13 players at a critical time in the match approaching the interval.
His absence left Ringrose terribly missing with a conversion kick, and Byrne’s own radar was off on 61 minutes when missing off the tee. He did finish with nine points (four successful kicks from six was his ratio), but if there was any anxiety over his display, how Prendergast went defensively following his introduction at full-back in the closing 12 minutes was a sharp reminder of why Byrne is the preferred 10.
Byrne gets his tackles in, unlike Prendergast. The sub’s attempt to prevent Drean from scoring was abject, leaving Leinster with a nervous final few minutes when they should have won comfortably.
Toulon’s Anglo angle
When it comes to recruitment, Toulon have placed trust in England being a fruitful place to bring forwards in from. They started with ex-internationals Sinckler and David Ribbans in their pack and had the highly rated U20s World Cup winner Junior Kpoku slotted in at six to try and add even more umph.
The relentlessness of the PREM is a reason why they have been suited to the French game, but their presence wasn’t enough to fire up Toulon here and get them into the final.
While Ribbans fought relentlessly, the contributions of Sinckler and Kpoku didn’t provide any sustenance. Sub Zach Mercer was a handful, though, with his work rate and the reflection will be that he should have started.
There was also a let-down with how Ben White, their Scottish scrum-half, went and the impact of Serin from the bench suggested he should have been the starting No.9.
Too many empty green seats
Fixtures such as this semi-final used to be massive must-be-at occasions, but this showpiece game didn’t quite hit the mark as the attendance was only 38,555. Two years ago, EPCR sold out Croke Park on Dublin’s Northside – a capacity of 82,300 – for Leinster’s clash with Northampton and that figure was 42,207 when the same teams contested last year’s semi-final at the Aviva.
Those who attended this latest semi-final in Ireland energetically generated a decent atmosphere, but there will be questions as to why more people weren’t tempted in through the turnstiles. Leinster, admittedly, have been having their issues packing in the larger crowds on their watch: the attendance for their round of 16 match versus Edinburgh was 21,491 and it decreased to 18,839 for the following weekend’s quarter-final at home to Sale.
This semi-final, though, was an EPCR-run fixture. The tournament’s governing body set the prices and there was a sharp rise in Saturday’s costs compared to every other week. For example, a lower-tier seat in block 102 was priced at €83.25. That same seat is retailing at €55.35 for Leinster’s game next weekend versus the Lions in the URC. No wonder the take-up was not what it could have been, leaving too many empty green seats for a fixture of this calibre.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.