Toulouse clinched the Investec Champions Cup with a 31-22 win over Leinster in a classic at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
The two sides couldn’t be separated after an intense 80 minutes as the game needed two 10 minute extra time periods.
Matthias Lebel’s try in the first half of extra time and four penalties each from Blair Kinghorn and Thomas Ramos was enough to cling on despite a Josh Van Der Flier try and a red card for Richie Arnold.
So, how did Toulouse clinched the trophy and where did it go wrong for the Irish province who have lost their last four Champions Cup finals?
Physicality in the forward pack
During the pre-match build up, there was a lot of discussion about the Leinster’s defence that Jaques Neinaber has installed since he joined the club following last year’s Rugby World Cup.
But one thing that did stand out was the physicality of the Toulouse forwards in open play and breakdown, despite the Irish side taking control at scrum time.
Whilst Antonie Dupont and Romain Ntamack won six turnovers between them, two less than the entire Leinster side. There were still six turnovers won by Toulouse forwards. Two of those were claimed by English flanker Jack Willis, who also made 29 tackles during the final and would have won player of the match if the scrum half wasn’t around.
Except for fly-half Ntamack and Leinster’s Caelan Doris, eight of the top 10 tackles came from the French club’s pack.
Hooker Pesto Mauvaka made 17 tackles of his own whilst loosehead props Rodrigue Neto and Cyril Baille made 25 between them, the Toulouse back five in the pack all made more than 10 tackles, with Alexandre Roumat making 14 tackles as Francois Cros made 16 hits.
One of the examples of the French side’s power in open play came in the second minute, after an excellent decoy line from Paul Costes and the deftest of tip on passes from Thibaund Flament put his second row partner Emmanuel Meafou into space who managed to tie in two defenders before offloading to winger Juan Cruz Mallia.
The Argentine winger grubber kicks ahead and would have scored an early try if Dupont’s foot didn’t touch the touchline after he was tackled by Jamison Gibson-Park.
Tactical kicking
Whilst the final served two tries in over 100 minutes between two heavyweights of European rugby, the exchange in tactical kicking between the two teams was quite remarkable.
Both teams kicked the ball over 30 times, Dupont kicked 19 times on his own.
Some of those included clearing kicks from his own 22 where the French scrum half would just kick long to relieve pressure, but two examples of where Dupont kicked to touch and forced the Irish side backwards.
Leinster didn’t do much wrong from their point of view as Gibson-Park and Ross Byrne kicked well throughout, especially with some high balls which replacement Thomas Ramos had some trouble taking with a strong chase from Jordan Larmour during the final 20 minutes of regular time.
The first of these occurred in the second half with a clearing kick from his own 22 found the opposing 10 metre line, a second coming from a restart in extra time which does see the ball head out inside Leinster’s half and bouncing away from Hugo Keenan which denies the opportunity for the quick lineout.
Although the two main talking points will be the two 50/22s that Dupont created, with the first one seemingly coming from nowhere.
It looks like the scrum half is setting up to box kick, but as he approaches the ruck he’s constantly scanning the backfield before putting an inch perfect kick behind the chasing Keenan.
The second one came during the first period of extra time, with a more traditional box kick being used as the touchline beats Gibson-Park to the ball.
Red zone efficiency
Alongside the kicking game, taking chances on offer and taking chances when in the opposition 22 is another vital cog if a team would want to win a final.
Leinster turned down several opportunities to kick at goal throughout the game despite kicking five penalties, Toulouse took 10 kicks at goal from the 15 penalties they were awarded and managed to kick eight.
The concerning stat for the Irish province is they entered the Toulouse 22 on 16 occasions and averaged one point scored per visit, whilst the French side averaged 2.1 points scored per visit from their six entries.
Three points is the figure for any professional side to aim for, if you’re over that then you’re having a good day and Leinster have been well above that number previously, in their URC win over the Ospreys at the start of the month, they scored nine tries from 10 visits with an average points scored of 6.1 per entry.
Full credit has to go to the Toulouse defence, with the previously mentioned Willis, Mauvaka and Cros making the tackles to accompany the turnovers won by their halfbacks in their own 22.
The French side capitalised on the player advantage following the yellow card to James Lowe with Lebel on the receiving end of an overlap and survived comfortably in the second half of extra time despite the Arnold red card.
Where next for Leinster?
Whilst Dupont and co will be knitting a sixth star onto their jersey after looking for back-to-back league successes in the Top 14, where do Leinster go from here after three successive final defeats in the competition?
The Irish province will now return to the URC with their final fixture of the regular season taking place at home to Connacht on Friday May 30.
Leo Cullen’s side have booked their place in the knockout stages as they will finish in the top 8, they are currently sitting in third but are three points behind league leaders Munster.
Despite sealing qualification, finishing in the top 4 gives you home advantage in the quarter-finals, yet a top 2 spot would give you a home semi-final if they would progress to the final four.
Since the re-brand to the URC, the league hasn’t been a happy hunting ground either with back-to-back home semi-final defeats to the Bulls and Munster.
This current Leinster side of this era over the last few years in the European competition are emulating teams such as Clermont and Racing who had gained reputation for losing finals over the years, where they have had strong sides and plenty of money but were never able to win a cup final, especially in this competition.
A squad stacked with Irish internationals and depth that teams in their league can only dream of with their current budgets, Leinster seem to have developed a mental block in recent finals.
Openside Blog 