Champions Cup Semi-final Leinster vs Toulouse

Leinster: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Jordan Larmour, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Charlie Ngatai, 11 Jimmy O’Brien, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Caelan Doris, 5 James Ryan (c), 4 Ross Molony, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter
Replacements: 16 John McKee, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Michael Ala’alatoa, 19 Jason Jenkins, 20 Ryan Baird, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Ciaran Frawley

Toulouse: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Juan Cruz Mallía, 13 Pierre-Louis Barassi, 12 Pita Ahki, 11 Matthis Lebel, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont (c), 8 Francois Cros, 7 Thibaud Flament, 6 Jack Willis, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 4 Richie Arnold, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 2 Peato Mauvaka, 1 Cyril Baille
Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 David Ainu’u, 19 Alexandre Roumat, 20 Rynhardt Elstadt, 21 Alban Placines, 22 Paul Graou, 23 Arthur Retiere

(Apologies if I've missed a discussion elsewhere on this game.)

Robbie Henshaw's withdrawal seems to be raising a few concerns on the Irish side, what with Lowe having been ruled out earlier, and Sexton out. Rúaidhrí O'Connor thinks it might tip the scales in favour of the French.

Ngatai hasn't played much, if any rugby, this year.

No Capouozzo or Jaminet in the back three for Toulouse, no Jelonch or Tolofua in the backrow with Flament having to cover blindside.

I think Leinster are still big favourites even if the local media are trying to ease the pressure.

formerly known as Sam wrote:No Capouozzo or Jaminet in the back three for Toulouse, no Jelonch or Tolofua in the backrow with Flament having to cover blindside.

I think Leinster are still big favourites even if the local media are trying to ease the pressure.

1/3 for a home win, with Toulouse 14/5. 25/1 for the draw after 80 mins.

formerly known as Sam wrote:No Capouozzo or Jaminet in the back three for Toulouse, no Jelonch or Tolofua in the backrow with Flament having to cover blindside.

I think Leinster are still big favourites even if the local media are trying to ease the pressure.

I mean...I am not going to write off Toulouse's front five. Even missing Jelonch, that is an excellent backrow. Arguably the best halfback pairing in international rugby let alone club rugby vs Gibson-Park/Byrne. If Ramos is not having one his nightmare days, the back three is still pretty dangerous.

I would not describe Leinster as big favourites, probably 60:40 and a lot of that is due to being at home.

Toulouse are missing a few quality international players but with club rugby's best 9, 10 axis combined with a formidable front 5 they will prove a stern test. They look less fatigued than last season and most of this squad looked very lively coming from behind to beat an on form Lyon a couple of weeks ago.

Bit of a gamble starting Flament at open side ( unless he is playing left and right with Willis). Flament has continued his France form back in club colours, as has Francois Cros in the less familiar role of no. 8.

Against Lyon Cros charged down the stand off's kick, snatched the ball that had rebounded into Hastoy's arms from the attempted kick and offloaded to a rampaging Flament to score under the posts. Brilliant stuff.

Toulouse bench looks stronger than Leinster's which may prove crucial.

Has all the making of a classic. Hope I haven't jinxed it!

Henshaw being missing is pretty big imo. I personally think toulouse may sneak this.

Maine man wrote:Henshaw being missing is pretty big imo. I personally think toulouse may sneak this.

Didn't realise Henshaw was out too. Would really have preferred to see both teams at full strength. But should still be a whale of a game.

formerly known as Sam wrote:No Capouozzo or Jaminet in the back three for Toulouse, no Jelonch or Tolofua in the backrow with Flament having to cover blindside.

I think Leinster are still big favourites even if the local media are trying to ease the pressure.

Well Leinster are also missing Lowe, Sexton and Henshaw. Any team would miss them.

Collapse2005 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:No Capouozzo or Jaminet in the back three for Toulouse, no Jelonch or Tolofua in the backrow with Flament having to cover blindside.

I think Leinster are still big favourites even if the local media are trying to ease the pressure.

Well Leinster are also missing Lowe, Sexton and Henshaw. Any team would miss them.

Henshaw the big miss in midfield there definitely. Sexton is a great flyhalf but he's out so much I think Leinster are used to operating without him. Ross Byrne isn't a bad replacement either, he'd be first choice at a lot of other clubs if he opted to move.

I think playing in Dublin is the major reason I think Leinster will win. They are incredible at home and French teams don't always travel well.

I expect Wayne Barnes to be flawless today. Worlds best ref by far.

Toulouse look really dangerous, they have come to play and score in the corner!

20-7 Leinster

Costly YC for Toulouse who need to get back in the game and quickly

Third try for Leinster during the YC, or is it?

Dropped it. That would have ended the game

No try, that would have been the game so lucky for Toulouse there

Well that's this game won

Well does not take them long to get another in any case

Toulouse have fallen to bits, that has got to be it

27-7 Leinster

There is no way they're coming back from this. Leinster are too ruthless and are bound to create more. Some pace to the game. Costly yellow.

Missed the first 15 minutes. Where is Dupont playing?

As usual no replay for the Leinster foul play. Dublin TV producers are more bias than the French ones. Happened in the quarter final as well. We desperately need to move away from the TMO only seeing what the TV producers show.

Porter should be having a 10 minute sit down based on the live viewing.

Sitting at the match behind a row of suspiciously Cork looking Toulouse fans. Great game so far.

Hon Leinster!!!

https://i.servimg.com/u/f18/19/86/73/89/image10.jpg

carpet baboon wrote:Missed the first 15 minutes. Where is Dupont playing?

He is at FH now when the reserve SH came on

The 6:2 bench has not worked for them today

Not everyone was happy with the Toulouse backline changes.

https://twitter.com/AnalystGus/status/1652322131684782085

Toulouse coach Ugo Mola...brought on a scrumhalf to replace a 13, meaning Dupont shifts to 10 and Ntamack to 12. All while there is a perfectly good 13 replacement in Mallia (Currently at 14).

Retiere should have come on at wing, shifting Mallia in to 13. Less players in new positions and you get to keep Dupont and Ntamack at 9 & 10.

The reason this makes sense? Mallia is an international 13 for Argentina. It’s actually his preferred position. As for Retiere, yes he was a Scrumhalf, but is now seen as a wing.

C’est fou!

That seems a bit odd when it's vdf initiating that.

That was a bizarre one, either of them could have been carded there, but that's surely then end for Toulouse now

When the 7 goes back for a 2nd bite his shoulder hits the other player directly on head - completely ignored though - just like the tip tackle in the first half. The officials have been poor on foul play in this match.

While a fair card due to his upward action it frustrates me that the crowd caused the review. And Leinster play does the same thing and it wouldn't get looked at.

TMO should be able to spot these things without the crowd and should review things for both sides

Brendan wrote:While a fair card due to his upward action it frustrates me that the crowd caused the review.  And Leinster play does the same thing and it wouldn't get looked at.

TMO should be able to spot these things without the crowd and should review things for both sides

The crowd shouldn’t have had to cause the review, it was obvious and right in front of the ref and linesman. If 46,000 people can see it why cant the ref, I saw it from row Z!!!

I’m convinced Leinster can’t be beaten, except for when they send their 3rd team to South Africa.

Collapse2005 wrote:

Brendan wrote:While a fair card due to his upward action it frustrates me that the crowd caused the review.  And Leinster play does the same thing and it wouldn't get looked at.

TMO should be able to spot these things without the crowd and should review things for both sides

The crowd shouldn’t have had to cause the review, it was obvious and right in front of the ref and linesman. If 46,000 people can see it why cant the ref, I saw it from row Z!!!

Looked at VDF. Dropped his head and butted him. Intentional and violent. Madness that wasn't a red.

We desperately need to move away from the TMO only seeing what the TV producers show.

TMO has access to all feeds and the TV director has no control over it

TJ wrote:

We desperately need to move away from the TMO only seeing what the TV producers show.

TMO has access to all feeds and the TV director has no control over it

Hmm. Bit like the missing camera angle in the 6Ns.

Is JGP the player of the match? I thought maybe Conan. Ngatai was good too.

Engine#4 wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:

Brendan wrote:While a fair card due to his upward action it frustrates me that the crowd caused the review.  And Leinster play does the same thing and it wouldn't get looked at.

TMO should be able to spot these things without the crowd and should review things for both sides

The crowd shouldn’t have had to cause the review, it was obvious and right in front of the ref and linesman. If 46,000 people can see it why cant the ref, I saw it from row Z!!!

Looked at VDF. Dropped his head and butted him. Intentional and violent. Madness that wasn't a red.

Although if the Toulouse man didn't drop his head, then VDF would have been red carded for slamming a shoulder into the head.

TJ wrote:

We desperately need to move away from the TMO only seeing what the TV producers show.

TMO has access to all feeds and the TV director has no control over it

Has access to but watches the same feed we do unless he requests a repeat. Ergo if there's a questionable act then if the producer opts not to show it then it might be missed. If he plays if adinfinitum it may well be as the crowd will likely see it on the big screen as well.

This happened in the game Vs Tigers. Cronin appeared to be tackled early close to the line, no replays. A few minutes later Porter questions a late tackle from him on Henderson and there was at least a dozen replays. It's shown in the stadium and the baying crowd forced a review which was fairly swiftly shown to be nothing at all.

Had the tip tackle from Porter been the other way round o guarantee that there would have been replays and the ref would have had to looked at it.

Well a game that definitely did not live up to its hype, not that the Leinster fans will mind I expect.

Jack Willis has played well, if he can't play for England he will be a big loss.

Duty281 wrote:

Engine#4 wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:

Brendan wrote:While a fair card due to his upward action it frustrates me that the crowd caused the review.  And Leinster play does the same thing and it wouldn't get looked at.

TMO should be able to spot these things without the crowd and should review things for both sides

The crowd shouldn’t have had to cause the review, it was obvious and right in front of the ref and linesman. If 46,000 people can see it why cant the ref, I saw it from row Z!!!

Looked at VDF. Dropped his head and butted him. Intentional and violent. Madness that wasn't a red.

Although if the Toulouse man didn't drop his head, then VDF would have been red carded for slamming a shoulder into the head.

He did hit him in the head with his shoulder in the 2nd challenge but nobody looked at that ...

Leinster are just to good. The squad depth is incredible and that conveyor belt of talent is unrelenting. Toulouse really suffered from that injury to the 13 early doors and the odd call to introduce the 9 who's experience is mainly at ProD2 level as opposed to Retiere.

If Leinster play like that in the final then I can't see anyone stopping them.

Whoa. Got in a little while ago but just saw the score now. That must have been a dry humping, eh?

The IRFU coaches historically have only picked the bulk of the test squads from two provincial teams. Currently it is Leinster who are dominating selection and that team has experience of playing together against the ABs and Springboks etc.
No club side can compete with that level of experience that has been built up over the last five years or so and backed up be an ex test coach - there aren't too many of those floating around in the club game either. It is also rare for more than a couple of first team players to be missing through injury.

It's a very powerful elite game model funded by the URC, Euros and Union.

Recwatcher16 wrote:The IRFU coaches historically have only picked the bulk of the test squads from two provincial  teams. Currently it is Leinster who are dominating selection and that team has experience of playing together against the ABs and Springboks  etc.
No club side can compete with that level of experience that has been built up over the last five years or so and backed up be an ex test coach - there aren't too many of those floating around in the club game either. It is also rare for more than a couple of first team players to be missing through injury.

It's a very powerful elite game model funded by the URC, Euros and Union.

It's interesting that the IRFU have been so happy to offer central contracts to Leinster players and effectively allow them to stack the talent they have. I mean fair play to Leinster for producing so much of it, hats off there. From an Ireland POV having three of your four flyhalf options at one club instead of spreading them around a bit is an odd call.

I can't see them changing the system whilst Ireland are damn good at international level but I have previously wondered why the didn't give each province the same central contract allowance to spend on Ireland internationals which may have allowed more movement between provinces but also more than one competitive team as opposed to the juggernaut and the poor relations there is currently.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Recwatcher16 wrote:The IRFU coaches historically have only picked the bulk of the test squads from two provincial  teams. Currently it is Leinster who are dominating selection and that team has experience of playing together against the ABs and Springboks  etc.
No club side can compete with that level of experience that has been built up over the last five years or so and backed up be an ex test coach - there aren't too many of those floating around in the club game either. It is also rare for more than a couple of first team players to be missing through injury.

It's a very powerful elite game model funded by the URC, Euros and Union.

It's interesting that the IRFU have been so happy to offer central contracts to Leinster players and effectively allow them to stack the talent they have. I mean fair play to Leinster for producing so much of it, hats off there. From an Ireland POV having three of your four flyhalf options at one club instead of spreading them around a bit is an odd call.

I can't see them changing the system whilst Ireland are damn good at international level but I have previously wondered why the didn't give each province the same central contract allowance to spend on Ireland internationals which may have allowed more movement between provinces but also more than one competitive team as opposed to the juggernaut and the poor relations there is currently.

It’s probably hard to uproot a lot of players from their Dublin school system and when they’ve grown up, they’re still Dubs. Sub academies are probably the best around, yet alone the main academy.

Fans weren’t great though. Irish never boo, but my tv constantly played Irish booing sound affects. I’ll get it fixed.

It isnt a Dublin schools system its a Leinster schools system, a fairly proportionate amount of players population wise are from or went to school out side Dublin. For example from the current squad :

Henshaw - Westmeath
OBrien - Kildare
Furlong - Wexford
Sheehan - Kildare
Conan - Wicklow
Ed Byrne - Carlow
Tadgh McElroy - Louth
Brian Deeny - Wexford
Will Connors - Kildare
Martin Moloney - Carlow
Cormac Foley - Wicklow
Dave Kearney - Louth/Kildare
Osbourne - Kildare
Milne - Offaly


Clongowes and Newbridge in Kildare in particular are two non Dublin schools that have provided a steady stream of internationals. Pres Bray, St Gerards and Roscrea too to a lesser extent.

Great match and very similar score to last years semi final v Toulouse. It has been a very long time since Toulouse won in Dublin so perhaps I should have expected the result a bit more but Toulouse have such quality. Atmosphere was electric from start to finish in the stands, perfect sunny day for rugby (for the first half anyway). It was a lot warmer than the quarter final v Ulster anyway. It will be great to have a final outside of England and France for once before it goes to Spurs stadium next year once again in England.

Will be nice to have it back at a neutral stadium though.

After the huge build-up, the match was a little bit of an anti-climax, as Leinster came close to having the match won in the first half. While Toulouse didn't lie down, it was still a one-sided contest. Neutral supporters spent most of the match expecting Leinster to win, and hoping Toulouse might be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat, to make it more interesting.

I can't recall too many recent crunch matches for Leinster where they have been pushed all the way, yet still managed a win. It seems like they either win comfortably or, a team gets under their skin, and they lose. That URC match against the Lions in South Africa a couple of weeks ago, had low stakes but was great to watch, as you saw Leinster get themselves out of a hole.

formerly known as Sam wrote:As usual no replay for the Leinster foul play. Dublin TV producers are more bias than the French ones. Happened in the quarter final as well. We desperately need to move away from the TMO only seeing what the TV producers show.

Porter should be having a 10 minute sit down based on the live viewing.

This is a myth. TMO sees all of the angles, regardless of what the broadcaster, BT Sport, or local production team, select.

Pot Hale wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:As usual no replay for the Leinster foul play. Dublin TV producers are more bias than the French ones. Happened in the quarter final as well. We desperately need to move away from the TMO only seeing what the TV producers show.

Porter should be having a 10 minute sit down based on the live viewing.

This is a myth.   TMO sees all of the angles, regardless of what the broadcaster, BT Sport, or local production team, select.

As above can. But will only see the TV feed until they ask.