Sexton Leads Four-Try Leinster Through To Marseille Decider

Leinster are through to their first Heineken Champions Cup final in three years after dethroning Toulouse in a surefooted 40-17 semi-final win at the Aviva Stadium.

Match Photo Gallery: Leinster 40 Toulouse 17

The defending champions struggled to cope with the pace of the hosts’ attack with James Lowe, the tournament’s top scorer this season, bagging two of their four tries.

Leinster recovered from Antoine Dupont’s sixth-minute breakaway score to lead 23-10 at half-time. Lowe and Josh van der Flier both touched down and captain Jonathan Sexton kicked 13 points.

The unrelenting speed of Leinster’s play left Toulouse – just a week on from their penalty shootout heroics here in Dublin – scrambling to plug leaks and they also lost lock Emmanuel Meafou to the sin bin.

Nonetheless, Tadhg Furlong’s 16th-minute injury-enforced departure was a big blow for the Irish province, with their scrum targeted by Cyril Baille and company.

Lowe’s 49th-minute effort – his 10th of the European campaign – was cancelled out by Toulouse replacement Selevasio Tolofua with 15 minutes remaining.

Ugo Mola’s men kept plugging away, but a closing try from Hugo Keenan, on the back of a Ross Byrne penalty, sealed Leinster’s place in the May 28 decider against La Rochelle.

An early Leinster barrage had Toulouse backpedalling, Matthis Lebel doing well to deny Jimmy O’Brien a try before Sexton fired over an early penalty.

However, just as the hosts threatened again through Keenan, Dupont blocked Jamison Gibson-Park’s kick and broke free from the Toulouse 22 for a sucker punch score, converted by Ramos.

Sexton narrowed the gap to 7-6, and while a break from Caelan Doris had promised more, Leinster were back to their ruthless best on the quarter hour mark.

A lineout maul gave them momentum, Robbie Henshaw carried strongly and Sexton’s inside pass saw Lowe score a seven-pointer on the short side.

The excellent Ross Molony sent Sexton through the Toulouse defence just three minutes later, with the out-half finding van der Flier who rolled over the line despite Juan Cruz Mallia’s tackle.

Despite Sexton stretching the lead to 20-7, Toulouse stormed back with a big scrum and Thomas Ramos duly halved the deficit in front of a 42,076-strong crowd.

Sexton punished Francois Cros for going off his feet and although a cynical Meafou saw yellow following a Garry Ringrose surge, Toulouse survived thanks to an offside call against Henshaw.

The French giants stood firm while down to 14 men either side of the interval, but Leinster stung them with a try off a Molony lineout steal.

Gibson-Park followed up to charge down Mallia in the visitors’ 22 and the attacking waves ended with Sexton’s long pass putting Lowe over on the left.

The gap was out to 20 points after a well-struck conversion from Sexton, the Heineken star-of-the-match, and Toulouse’s initial attempts off a maul were repelled.

Pita Ahki lifted the Top 14 title holders with a man-and-ball tackle on Sexton, and their forward power allowed Tolofua to tiptoe over from a lineout drive with Ramos converting from the touchline.

Leinster replacement Byrne knocked over the insurance score, though, and Keenan slipped past both David Ainu’u and Baille with two minutes left, ensuring Leinster will have a shot at a fifth European star in Marseille.

Giving his reaction afterwards, the province’s head coach Leo Cullen said: “Credit to the lads, there was lots of really good stuff in the game. They threw the kitchen sink at them, but Toulouse, they hung in and hung in.

“They’re always a constant threat. You can see that in the first half, where we’re attacking in their 22, we lose possession and they’re gone the length of the field (for Dupont’s score).

“That constant threat was there the whole time. For our guys, I thought it was a good performance overall. There’s still room for growth as always, but to deliver a big performance in a semi-final, it’s pleasing.”

Talismanic number 10 Sexton knows there is more in this Leinster team and they will likely have to draw out an even better performance to overcome the Ronan O’Gara-coached La Rochelle side in two weeks’ time.

“How we came back from the bad moments was probably what I was most pleased about,” he admitted. “We did some good things and built on last week’s performance. We dug in last week, it wasn’t great in terms of how we used the ball but we built on it.

“We need to be better again in the final because at the end of the day, Toulouse played 100 minutes against Munster, had to travel home, had to travel here again. So we’ve got to take it with a pinch of salt.

“I never thought that I’d get another chance so it’s great to be in another European final. This isn’t where we wanted to get to. We want to win the final so we’ve achieved nothing yet.

“We are so driven to put a fifth star on the jersey and every single person in the dressing room, staff, guys who were playing, guys who weren’t playing are really driven. It’s a special environment to be part of.”