Leinster 43-13 Sale
Leinster host Toulon at Aviva Stadium on 2/3 May
Semi-final number 17 beckons for Leinster. The one-time serial champions of this competition will take another, against Toulon, back at the Aviva in a couple of weeks’ time. Sounds epic. Probably will be. But Leinster are still not quite convincing.
This was a Sale team missing a host of their best players. No one gave them a chance, but they made a real nuisance of themselves for a good 50 minutes before yielding to the inevitable. Four Leinster tries in the last half-hour put them away, but after the home team’s struggle to do the same here against Edinburgh last week Toulon, who are hardly a study in eloquence themselves at the moment, will fancy their chances.
We are spoilt for breathtaking games of rugby these days, but this was not one of them – for the first half certainly. The contrast with the extraordinary skills on display in Bath the night before was getting on for painful. A stubborn drizzle set in just before kick-off, and it would not let the ball stick in the hands very many times before precipitating some spill or other by an international rugby player, usually in the blue of Leinster. Usually in the blue, because Leinster hogged the majority of possession throughout.
