In-form Leinster fire ominous warning at other URC contenders

Toulouse don’t get beaten every day and they don’t get outplayed every day, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the leading team on the United Rugby Championship log, Leinster, received rave reviews for their exploits at the weekend.

The Irish team reached the Champions Cup final with an emphatic thumping of the reigning champions, Toulouse, and they now get a chance to avenge last year’s semi-final defeat to La Rochelle when they meet the French team in Marseille in the decider on 28 May.

La Rochelle of course were pipped by Toulouse in last year’s final so they do have plenty to play for. But as the Irish will quickly point out, Leinster captain Johnny Sexton did not play when they lost to La Rochelle last year, and the value of the 36-year-old to the URC champions and four-time European champions was underlined in their imperious performance against Toulouse.

The French media heaped praise not only on Leinster, who they said gave Toulouse a rare “rugby lesson”, but they were also filled with admiration for Sexton.

“The years pass, the concussions too, but he is still there. At 36, we wonder if he is still at the level, but Sexton proves in high-stakes matches that he is still just as effective.”

Those were the words of La Figaro’s Arnau Coudry, who also had this to say about Leinster: “Leinster shines with its organisation, its style of play programmed and recited off by heart. Cold efficiency.”

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The form of Sexton and Leinster is certainly a loud warning to the teams they will meet in the URC play-offs, which begin the weekend after the Champions Cup final.

Leinster will surely start the final as favourites so the chances are good that the reigning URC champions will be heading into the playoffs as the reigning European champions.

La Rochelle beat Racing

It was a much closer affair in Sunday’s semi-final between two other French teams, with La Rochelle handing Racing 92 a 20-13 defeat.

The latter looked the likely winners for much of the first half but the visitors, coached by former Ireland flyhalf Ronan O’Gara, capitalised on a period of prolonged pressure by scoring just on the stroke of half-time to cut what had been a 10-3 deficit to just two points.

In the second half they were helped by two yellow cards and a penalty try against a Racing team that lost Springbok prop Trevor Nyakane to an injury sustained in the pre-match warmup.

An emotional Nyakane had to watch from the sidelines as his teammates went through several malfunctions in the set scrums, particularly when they were down on numbers.