Before the game we were reliably informed that the pitch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is not narrower than any standard rugby pitch. Maybe it was just the cauldron-like shape of this amazing arena that made it seem so claustrophobic on Saturday.
Rarely has space been in such short commodity during a club rugby match. Tellingly it was only when a couple of players were carded in extra time that we had the afternoon’s two tries. That’s two tries in over 100 minutes of action, not exactly the festival of attacking rugby that some had predicted.
After a third consecutive defeat in the decider, Leinster will be inconsolable. They can count themselves unfortunate that Matthis Lebel’s try came as an almost direct consequence of James Lowe’s yellow card. They had finished the match proper with all the momentum. Had Ciaran Frawley been on target with that late drop-goal attempt, with 30 seconds on the clock, would anyone have disputed the fairness of the result?
As his kick flew through the air, Frawley leant to the right, willing the ball with his hands like a golfer urging his drive away from the hazard. The ball stayed left but there is no damning the player for his miss, merely a tinge of regret for Leinster supporters that this player has not been given this sort of responsibility to perform in similar circumstances.
Leinster must have emerged from their huddle before extra time with the conviction that they would win. If only they could land the first blow. Instead they were sucker-punched by Lowe’s misfortune. And it was misfortunate.
Advertisement
How can you call what he did a “deliberate” knock-on? This was an instinctive reaction and going purely on rugby common sense, a penalty was all it deserved.
Lebel’s try came within 60 seconds of Lowe’s departure. It was scored on the far side of the pitch from his wing but Leinster were two bodies down as Frawley was receiving attention, having come off second best from his brutally heavy tackle on Blair Kinghorn. Finally some space for Toulouse.
Santiago Chocobares is credited with the assist for Lebels’s score but the real space-creator was Thomas Ramos, who read Jordan Larmour’s less than convincing rush and delayed his pass. It was a three-on-two executed to perfection.
This was the Toulousain spirit we’d read so much about before the game. The way the narrative had been shaped was that it would all be about whether Leinster’s defence could stop Toulouse’s attack, which had been averaging around six and a half tries per game in Europe this season. It seemed like Leinster would derive their energy from Jacques Nienaber, who was prowling the technical zone as if determined to impose his will on proceedings.
That narrative was flipped, however. Before Lebel’s try, Toulouse had maybe two genuine try-scoring opportunities, both of which were referred to the TMO, who found that Jamison Gibson-Park and Larmour had both made vital interventions for Leinster. But that was about the extent of it.
Advertisement
The key member of Toulouse’s coaching team, we suspect, is Jerome Kaino, their contact skills coach. It was in the collision zone that Toulouse caused Leinster most damage, knocking them off their rhythm and exposing the deficiencies in their attack.
It wasn’t like Leinster were short on opportunities. By half-time, they were comfortably ahead of Toulouse on all attacking metrics, with twice the number of passes made and defenders beaten. At one stage in the second quarter, their possession count was up to 85 per cent. But their turnover count was damning — eight in total during that first half, when they kept putting the ball on the deck. Six points was a pitiful return for all that field position.
So much of that was down to Toulouse’s aggression in contact. Jack Willis and Alex Roumat counter-rucked viciously to ensure messy ball for Gibson-Park and that disruption spread mayhem across Leinster’s midfield.
Ross Byrne played above himself in the 40-13 quarter-final win against La Rochelle, but for the most part he enjoyed premium service that day. Here he was either static or lateral on the ball, lacking the pace to straighten onto those wrap-arounds and apply some zip.
It was only later, when admittedly there was more space, that Frawley provided some edge in attack, a change in gear that was mostly lacking. It was those moments that made you wonder whether Leinster have missed a trick in not backing Frawley more frequently at fly half.
Advertisement
With Gibson-Park short on space to attack, Leinster’s biggest attacking weapons were in the pack. Caelan Doris made some big carries and Josh van der Flier brought power and pace off the bench. But it was Dan Sheehan who consistently posed Toulouse the biggest threat, punching hard in the middle of the park or providing an excellent kick-pass option on either touchline.
Sheehan’s determination to impose himself was best summed up in the 29th minute when he ripped the ball from Antoine Dupont and set off on a 60-metre sprint, only to be hauled down by Kinghorn ten metres short of the tryline.
Typically, it was Dupont who made it back to contest on the deck — illegally, at least from our angle in the press box, but maybe greatness earns you a few of those close calls.
Robbie Henshaw found a few half-gaps in midfield and Lowe had his moments before the break, with his errant inside pass to Gibson-Park one of those what-if moments. But it says something about Leinster’s attacking limitations that their most effective tactic was to launch bombs at the Toulouse back three and to chase hard.
Losing a third consecutive final will prompt knee-jerk responses from some of Leinster’s less forgiving supporters, especially if the URC title also eludes the club. It’s worth remembering that they will be stronger next season with the addition of RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett. The arrival of a new attack coach in Tyler Bleyendaal seems a good opportunity to alter the pecking order at fly half. In a Test-match environment like this one, you need Test quality from one to 15.
