The last thing a good team want is a reputation for losing finals. So it was easy to empathise with the crushing disappointment Leinster felt at the end. They stood in little clusters for a long time after the game, unable to speak, knowing they’d been in this place before and hating it all the more for that.
In these circumstances there is nothing to console the beaten team, no way of diluting the desolation. Three final losses in a row are too many and the game Leinster felt they dare not lose was actually the game they couldn’t win. They had enough possession, more than enough opportunities inside Toulouse territory, but that extra X factor is what they lacked.
Of course they got desperately close. The final minute of normal time is the moment to have a far from impossible shot at a winning drop-goal. Alas for Leinster, Ciaran Frawley pulled his effort narrowly wide of the left post. What would we have said if that had gone over? I would have written that Leinster toughed it out in the final quarter and deserved their victory.
Brian Clough once said that to be sure of winning, you needed to be two goals better than the opposition. Leinster never had a cushion and in extra time Toulouse got on top, scored a good try and deserved their victory. During the two ten-minute periods of extra time, they were the better team.
The difference between the sides was that Toulouse could score a try when Leinster lost James Lowe to a yellow card. Even then, Leinster’s blitz defence misfired as Jordan Larmour was drawn infield to Thomas Ramos, leaving both Santiago Chocobares and Matthis Lebel free on his outside. Once Chocobares drew Hugo Keenan, the try for Lebel was straightforward.
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Then when Toulouse were reduced to 14 after Richie Arnold’s red card, Leinster couldn’t make the extra player count. They had the ball, they ran hard but they never surprised and seldom stressed the Toulouse defence. In last year’s final, Leinster’s attack scored three excellent tries in the first 20 minutes against La Rochelle and still lost. Then they couldn’t cope with the physicality of the French side. That’s the part of their game they were intent on improving.
This time they were comfortable defending against Toulouse and were the better scrummaging team. That meant penalties and field position but Leinster just didn’t have enough in attack. Quick ruck possession, slick passing and clever running angles are qualities that were once part of Leinster’s DNA. Give them the ball and they score tries. Not on this occasion. Fly half Ross Byrne’s passing was laboured, his movement predictable. Too often Jamie Osborne and Robbie Henshaw were left to just run hard and straight and Toulouse coped comfortably with that. With both teams scoring one try, victory went to the side who conceded fewer penalties in their own half. Toulouse won that contest.
It will be said that Leinster now lack the mental wherewithal to win the biggest games. Three in a row, what does that indicate if not psychological weakness? A team choking is a better story than a team not being good enough. But Leinster didn’t retreat into their shells. Their attack was simply blunt.
They didn’t have game-changers. In Jamison Gibson-Park they have an excellent scrum half but in Antoine Dupont, Toulouse have the best player in the world. His two 50:22s were huge moments in this final and his overall contribution was out of this world. He was expected to be the player of the match, and to then deliver that performance was confirmation that we are watching a once-in-a-generation player. He has all the skills and is fiercely competitive, and his time with the France sevens team has further improved his athleticism.
His greatest single contribution came in the immediate aftermath of his one difficult moment. Inside Leinster’s half, he received a pass and was tackled and robbed of the ball by Dan Sheehan. The hooker surged clear into the Toulouse 22. Ten yards from the tryline, he was tackled by the covering Blair Kinghorn.
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Still, a try looked likely until Dupont, having chased back after his error, got into the breakdown and forced a turnover. This is what such players can achieve, what Toulouse had in Dupont and what Leinster didn’t have.
They will wonder now about the future. Out of one loss comes the desire to avenge that defeat. Two consecutive losses in the final cause doubt, but an even greater hunger to put things right. Three will seem crushing and there will be plenty among their huge support ready to tell them why they failed.
Better for the team and coaches to accept that in upping their physicality and improving their defence, they lost something in attack. They will start again, because they are professionals and they won’t give up or stop trying. Perhaps the head coach, Leo Cullen, already sensed a lack of star quality and Leinster will be a better team with RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett in their ranks next season. How they needed those two in this final.
