Leinster put themselves in position to win their fifth Champions Cup after a comfortable 41-22 win over Toulouse in the Aviva Stadium.
With Johnny Sexton, Robbie Henshaw and James Lowe all missing it was expected to be a tough task for Leinster. However, Leo Cullen's side put in an exceptional performance to reach their second successive final.
After an early Toulouse settled the visitors nerves, Leinster made the most of Thomas Ramos' yellow card scoring three tries in a scintillating spell.
Jack Conan scored back to back tries for the home side before Dan Sheehan took advantage of a deflected pass to dot over the line with 27 minutes gone.
Toulouse did strike back before half-time through Emmanuel Meafou making the score 27-14 at the half.
The French side started the second half strong, but incredible defending from Leinster denied them a try early in the second half.
In a far less open second half, Ramos reduced it to a 10 point game with a penalty in the 54th minute. However, after Toulouse were again reduced to 14 men, Josh Van Der Flier scored their fourth try from a maul to put Leinster in a strong position.
Leo Cullen's side ensured of victory minutes later, as Jason Jenkins came off the bench to score another try for the province as they aim to win their fifth Champions Cup.
A late try from Toulouse Thibaut Flament added some gloss to the scoreline, as Leinster will face the winners of La Rochelle and Exeter Chiefs.
🕐 | HALF-TIME
What a half of rugby! Five tries, including two from Jack Conan, and one from Dan Sheehan.
Leinster lead by 13 at the break.
🔵🟡 27-14 🔴⚫️#LEIvTOU #FromTheGroundUp pic.twitter.com/EbIMNDtBGbAdvertisement— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) April 29, 2023
Before the game, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen spoke to epcrugby.com about the threat Toulouse pose.
“(They have) a big physical pack. I think they will be very direct when they have the ball, confrontational.
“They kick the ball a fair amount. I know Toulouse’s reputation is free-flowing, off-loading rugby, but I think they will be pretty pragmatic, particularly at the start of the game.
“As the game starts to open up then they will start to move the ball around, and you see a lot of their points come late in games.
“I think they will try to take us on physically, which is good because that is what we want as well, a good physical challenge for our guys.
“You want to test yourself against the best teams out there. It’s a great challenge. They have great quality.
“You can’t switch off for a second with some of the players that they have – game-changing players.”
Leinster beat Toulouse comfortably in last season’s semi-finals to secure their place in the showpiece, where they narrowly lost to La Rochelle.
And it is going to require another huge effort in Leinster’s quest for an Aviva Stadium return on May 20th, when the winners will face holders La Rochelle or sole English survivors Exeter, who clash in Bordeaux on Sunday.
Cullen added: “Last year, they (Toulouse) had played 100 minutes (against Munster in the quarter-finals) and travelled.
“I heard some of their comments this week about that, how they got things wrong around some of the selections leading into that game, or that sequence of games.
“You need to be prepared to deal with whatever comes your way on any given day.”
Leinster are without Ireland international centre Robbie Henshaw through injury, so Charlie Ngatai partners Garry Ringrose in midfield.
“We wanted to be the top seeds, we wanted to make sure we did everything to be here at the Aviva, and now we are,” Cullen said.
“We are here, which is great, and it is a real privilege
