Leinster gained an early grip, scoring ten points in the opening ten minutes, and held tight to post a UCL 20-11 semi-final win over Stormers in front of 15,346 at Aviva Stadium. Shrugging off an ungainly week peppered with background spats, the Blues now move on to meet Bulls in the URC Grand Final at Croke Park on Friday, June 19 (7.30pm). On the one hand, spats over their season’s progress and whether their Head Coach, defensive style or collective coaching team, is at ‘fault’
will now take another 13-day airing. But by the same metric the collective, with Jamison Gibson-Park adjudged Man of the Match, can afford themselves a pat on the back for subduing Stormers who put in a doughty effort following a surprisingly timid opening quarter. The win may even be all the better for a pre-game South African warning as, in the first of the two semi-finals, Bulls came from 21-3 down in Glasgow to win 22-21. “You have to give credit to Stormers, they were
very physical and they defended very well,” said Leinster boss Leo Cullen afterwards. “I thought our players were exceptional in terms of how they ground it out. You could see how emotional their players were at the end, you could how much this meant to them. “We have made another final and it will be our seventh play-off game. We need to move quite quickly, rest and recovery is important at this time of the season, we need to use the time wisely.” Leinster were
in the attack from the get-go, second-centre Rieko Ioane, taking a well-times pass from Jamie Osborne on a right-to-left sweep. Noticing the Stormers defence was poorly aligned, the All Black glided through to score. There was little doubting the home side’s pragmatism as skipper Caelan Doris pointed at the sticks in the 18th and 24th minutes. Sam Prendergast waited on the tee before claiming three points each time. Stormers, switching up a gear, put together their most coherent spell to this point and, close to
the Leinster line, big second-row unit Adre Smith picked up a loose ball and proved unstoppable. Strange quirk here as Juree Matthee misses the conversion (echoing Bulls missing three consecutive penalties at 22-21 ahead against Glasgow). Still two scores behind on the board, Ruhan Nel deeming it necessary to kick a penalty under the posts a little later to make it, at 13-8, a one score game. Leinster finished the half in the ascendancy, mounting successive attacks from three consecutive penalties but were stopped close
to the line a number of times before Prendergast was nailed following an attempt to go wide. Leinster enjoyed the better of the third-quarter possession but ended up conceding a penalty for offside when a defensive kick with a low trajectory almost decapitated Gibson-Park some 12 metres ahead of the kicker. Matthee kicked the penalty to narrow the gap to two points but it would be the closest the Stormers would get and, indeed, living on the defensive nerves they finally conceded a try to
a brilliant Gibson-Park break. Ruan Ackermann had been yellow-carded for a high tackle just beforehand, Salmaan Moerat was yellow-carded for an offence in the Gibson-Park score and, before the restart, Ackermann’s card was upgraded to red. “We knew it was going to be a battle and it was a bit like the story of our season,” said Gibson-Park. “Croke Park is an awesome field to get to go on, I missed out last time because I was injured so it is great to get another
go.” Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O’Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Thomas Clarkson, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Max Deegan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt) Replacements: Gus McCarthy for Kelleher 68, Alex Usanov for Porter 21, Rabah Slimani for Clarkson 54, Diarmuid Mangan for McCarthy 68, Jack Conan for van der Flier 54, Luke McGrath for Gibson-Park 75, Harry Byrne for Prendergast 57, Garry Ringrose for Osborne 61 DHL Stormers: Damian Willemse; Wandisile Simelane, Ruhan
Nel (capt), Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas; Jurie Matthee, Imad Khan; Ntuthuko Mchunu, André-Hugo Venter, Neethling Fouché, Adré Smith, Connor Evans, Paul de Villiers, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos Replacements: JJ Kotzé for Venter 54, Vernon Matongo for Mchunu 54, Zachary Porthen for Fouche 54, Salmaan Moerat for Dixon 46, Ruan Ackermann for de Villiers 59, Marcel Theunissen for Zas 46, Stefan Ungerer for Khan 61, Warrick Gelant for Simelane 57 Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland) Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you
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Leinster, Stormers, URC semi-final, Jamison Gibson-Park, Aviva Stadium, Croke Park, Bulls, June 19, Hollie Davidson