Champions Cup final thread

There's nothing wrong with kicking for the corner, but you need the rugby smarts to adjust if it's not working and the opposition's maul defence is top drawer. This is where Leinster let themselves down, there was abundant evidence kicking for the corner was not the value play and taking the 3pts was the correct way to proceed.

You always felt it was a matter of when Toulouse would land the knockout blow, not if. Leinster had little moments of promise but Toulouse were in control for the majority of that match. Leinster got destroyed at the breakdown and swarmed in attack. Surprisingly, the scrum was the only area where Leinster could compete.

Defending against Leinster is very easy with Ross at 10. JGP would actually be better passing the ball straight to Osborne, because all Ross does is shovel it on and slow the attack down, giving defences time to leave him and drift because they know he's no threat.

But Leinster losing a final is hardly surprising. Just don't have the star quality to get over the line against top sides. That's 3 in a row now. Ouch!

The Lowe yellow was a clear yellow. If it was a Toulouse player, Leinster fans would be screaming for a yellow.

Gosh, that sounds like quite the egregious list. I wonder if Toulouse fans, who were watching with an eagle eye to see if they ever had a questionable call go against them, might have a similar tally of complaints? I'll bet they do.

That's grand if you ignore smacking the ball into touch as illegal. Good stuff.

I’m not normally one to do the ref criticism post match win or loss but I have serious issue with Carley.
He has form in this regard, the Wales Fiji match in the WC was the most one sided refereeing performance I’ve seen in my lifetime and should have meant Carley relegated to U10’s.
Leaving the knock on/deliberate slap aside as this is open to interpretation, there were some major errors that absolutely affected momentum in the game and most definitely influenced the outcome.
Joe McCarthy’s try ruled out, the ball was ripped by Ntamack (I think). A rip is not a knock on, Carley called it as a knock on. Black and white wrong decision denying Leinster a try under the posts.
Lowe’s try in the corner ruled out. Leinster had penalty advantage, Carley called a knock on in the buildup, no tv evidence of it that I saw, commentators didn’t see it. No tmo check. 🤷‍♂️

Jack Willis turnover, massive moment in the game and a huge shift in momentum. The ball was not out of the ruck and Willis came round and picked it up. Should have been a Leinster penalty and possibly a card because it was so blatant. Instead tls are up on the Leinster try line.

DuPont turnover after Sheehan break. DuPont’s hands were on the ground and he never attempted a lift, got the penalty. I’m fine with this in isolation. The contrast shortly after when Sheehan was over the ball for a very long time was stark. Yes Sheehan got the penalty eventually but only because tls couldn’t shift him no matter how hard they tried leaving Carley no choice.

I know Leinster made mistakes but I feel a lot of the silly penalties they have away were out of pure frustration, that was understandable in my eyes.

The refereeing team did their utmost to deny JVDF a try and we’re looking for every mitigation to not give the red. Both decisions were pretty obvious to the viewer and the commentary teams but not the refereeing teams.

Ringrose was sadly missed in a game like that.

I kept thinking I somehow missed the incident that people were saying was the same as the Lowe yellow. This is what they're talking about? Oh, wow.

Mentality was correct , mentality meant he tried, something with Byrne would kot have done, at least frawley went out trying.

Also he was under pressure, there was a toulouse player within 5 yards when he connected

Spot on

It's been a tough run for sure, but better to be competing in European finals rather then nowhere near them. Leinster not having the star power to complete with top teams? Just trash talk tbh. We bettered last years champs away and home this year. We've a great record against Toulouse up until today, when unfortunately things didn't go our way.

5 yards is not close...well not to me. I think he has to nail it...Sexton wouldn't have missed it...I know unfair to compare players but he wouldn't as he had balls steel under pressure...Crawley didn't unfortunately

I didn't give my option because there's no point. Who the hell am I going to convince if I think they were fair enough?

Not that I'm saying they were. I'm disappointed - I wanted Leinster to win, not a French team. But just like the game against Ulster, Leinster were repelled multiple times going for the line rather than taking their points. Neither Doris nor Ryan is a very good captain. That the problem, not Carley.

You want momentum swings? Porter boring straight across and earning penalties rather than getting penalised himself, because Carley apparently doesn't know what the hell he's looking at. That's a momentum swing.

Or maybe you're right and Carley secretly hates Leinster.

Anyway, Leinster fans are hurting, anf I understand that and sympathise, so I'm just going to bow out of what I know will be a very fraught discussion.

Bad luck, lads.