Semi-final number 17 beckons for Leinster. The one-time serial champions of this competition will take another, against Toulon, back at the Aviva in a couple of weeks’ time. Sounds epic. Probably will be. But Leinster are still not quite convincing.
This was a Sale team missing a host of their best players. No one gave them a chance, but they made a real nuisance of themselves for a good 50 minutes before yielding to the inevitable. Four Leinster tries in the last half-hour put them away, but after the home team’s struggle to do the same here against Edinburgh last week Toulon, who are hardly a study in eloquence themselves at the moment, will fancy their chances.
We are spoilt for breathtaking games of rugby these days, but this was not one of them – for the first half certainly. The contrast with the extraordinary skills on display in Bath the night before was getting on for painful. A stubborn drizzle set in just before kick-off, and it would not let the ball stick in the hands very many times before precipitating some spill or other by an international rugby player, usually in the blue of Leinster. Usually in the blue, because Leinster hogged the majority of possession throughout.
For 40 minutes, they could not achieve more than a Dan Sheehan try in the 10th, the prolific hooker sliding along the soggy turf to the posts after a series of solid Leinster carries off a lineout. The home side, nearly 10 points shy of their customary place at the top of the United Rugby Championship, have been attracting some scrutiny of late, their slick attacking game looking less assured than usual.
Bordeaux Bègles, the holders, came through a thrilling all-French quarter-final, dispatching the six-time champions Toulouse 30-15 at a packed Stade Chaban-Delmas.
The highly anticipated encounter between the two best sides in France was a chance for Toulouse to gain revenge for their -Champions Cup semi-final defeat last year. But Bordeaux brio ruled the day as the scrum-half Maxime Lucu and the fly-half Matthieu Jalibert (pictured scoring) outshone their international colleagues Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack.
“We know that when we come with speed, even the biggest teams struggle to defend against us,” said Jalibert.
In the last four they will meet the Prem leaders, Bath, who edged -Northampton on Friday.
On Saturday, the France wing Gaël Drean scored two first-half tries as the three-time champions Toulon booked their place in the semi-finals of this year’s Champions Cup with a nerve-wracking 22-19 win over Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun Stadium. It is the first time that the Top 14 side has reached the final four since they won the last of their three successive titles in 2015.
"It’s just pure joy," said Toulon flanker Charles Ollivon. "We haven’t achieved anything yet but it’s great for everyone, it rewards a lot of effort. We have been through some tough patches this season, today we’re here, we have to keep going. We’d kind of lost our smiles but today we’re back." Agencies
So it was again here, but matters were not helped in that department by their travails at the set piece in that first half. Sale had a clear edge at the scrum and found joy at the lineout too in the first half, before the latter set piece fairly fell apart in the second.
George Ford landed a penalty from around 40 metres out five minutes from the break. The fact he went for the posts with the penalty, rather than the ever-fashionable corner, almost felt like something worth celebrating. Sale’s reserves were only four points behind at the break – and appeared to mean business.
That all changed courtesy of two yellow cards, one either side of half-time. Dan du Preez’s just before was for a deliberate knock-on – more of a faintest-of-brush-forwards, but they all count. Fairly faint contact was responsible for the next too, when Si McIntyre’s head knocked into that of James Ryan during a nothing tackle. On such minute contacts do contests swing.
The McIntyre incident occurred in the build-up to Leinster’s second try, three minutes into the second half. The excellent Harry Byrne, now seemingly first-choice 10 for Leinster, sparked it with a beautiful pass, and soon Ryan Baird was galloping down the right. He turned the ball inside to Hugo Keenan for the score. A TMO seance straight after did for McIntyre for 10 minutes.
Leinster Keenan (Frawley 71); T O’Brien, Ringrose (Henshaw 60), J Osborne, Ioane; H Byrne, Gibson-Park (McGrath 64); Usanov (Cahir 4), Sheehan (capt), Furlong (Clarkson 55), J McCarthy, Ryan (Kelleher 67), Baird (Deegan 62), Van der Flier (Penny 50), Conan. Tries Sheehan, Keenan, Baird, Ioane, O’Brien, Osborne' Cons Byrne 5. Pen Byrne.
Sale Carpenter (Wills ht); Roebuck, R du Preez (Louw 60), Ma’asi-White, O’Flaherty; Ford, Warr (Hanson 68); McIntyre (McEachran 64), Caine (Longstaff 64), Opoku-Fordjour (Harper 64), Van Rhyn (capt), Vermeulen (Logan 71), Dugdale (Gilmore 71), D du Preez. Sin bin D du Preez 37, McIntyre 44. Try Wills Con Ford Pen Ford 2.
Referee Pierre Bousset (France)
While Sale were thus down to 13, Leinster scored again. Ford pulled back another three points with a penalty, this one from an angled 45 metres, before Rieko Ioane’s finesse put Garry Ringrose away on the right. Sweet hands swept the ball to Baird, who galloped again, this time down the left, this time to the line.
Two more Leinster tries in the next 10 minutes, either side of the hour, killed the game off against a Sale side who had barely strung any attacking moves together by that point. Ioane finished the first, then Tommy O’Brien dotted down after Byrne’s chip had caused chaos in the Sale defence. Inevitably, the game now long gone, Sale put together their first piece of artistry to send Alex Wills over in the corner, but a Byrne penalty in the last 10 minutes put the hosts 23 points clear.
Jamie Osborne rounded off the match with Leinster’s sixth at the death to add a touch of gloss. But Toulon won’t be fooled in three weeks’ time.
