Is there a sudden outbreak of Leinster “big-game fatigue” out there? Let’s pause for a moment and put this weekend’s Champions Cup semi-finals into context. It actually is an achievement to be one of the last quartet in any competition. Leinster and Toulouse are specialists at reaching this stage in the Champions Cup. Everyone else should be so lucky.
To start with the bleedin’ obvious, only four teams out of the 24 which started out this season have managed the feat. As the URC, Top 14 and Premiership pauses, the other 20 would happily swap places with those hogging the stage this weekend. Of course, reaching a final belongs to an even more exclusive club.
Take Leinster. In the 30 years of what is now the Champions Cup, their encounter with Northampton on Saturday will be their 16th semi-final. If you stop and think about it, that truly is exceptional.
Unsurprisingly, the only club to have reached more semi-finals are Toulouse. Against Bordeaux Bègles on Sunday, they will be playing their 17th semi-final. By contrast, Northampton are playing in their fifth and Bordeaux Bègles just their second.
What might be a little more surprising is that even for the two highest achievers in the history of the tournament, there are no guarantees for Leinster and Toulouse when it comes to this stage of the tournament. Of Leinster’s 15 semi-finals to date, they have won eight and lost seven. For their part, Toulouse have also endured their fair share of disappointment at this stage, winning eight and losing eight of their previous 16.
So, if there is a small element of big-game fatigue among Leinster fans, perhaps understandably, like all of us they have short memories. Admittedly it’s 30 years ago since Leinster reached their first semi-final way back in the inaugural European Cup in 1995-96 when they, as well as Munster and Ulster, were among a dozen teams drawn from France, Wales, Italy and Romania.
Furthermore, all Leinster had to do was beat Milan away and Pontypridd at home to reach the last four. Almost despite themselves.
Niall Woods was Leinster’s left winger in the province’s competition debut in Milan on November 1st, 1995, when the attendance was recorded as 1,200.
“The game kicked off at 2.30 on a Wednesday afternoon, and it was a mudbath. Diego Dominguez was playing,” recalls Woods of the normally prolific Argentinian-born Italian outhalf.
“He actually kicked two out of eight. It was filthy, as in the fighting, the gouging, the works. Obviously, I didn’t see any of that, nor was I anywhere near it.”
[ Rugby analysis: Leinster attack looking more and more comfortable in chaosOpens in new window ]
Despite Dominguez losing his radar, Leinster were losing the game late on.
“I got the ball on the 10-yard line, at outhalf from a ruck in the middle of the field. I stepped a fella and was just gone. These were the days when if you broke the first line, then you just had to round the fullback and we won by three points,” says Woods of Leinster’s 24-21 victory.
I remember getting a cheque, I think for £175 to play because you were technically allowed to be paid at that stage
— Niall Woods
“The reason I remember is that ‘Munch’ (aka Shane Byrne) was asked in an interview for the best try he ever saw and he said that one. I read it and laughed and said ‘fair play Munch’. We were in [Blackrock] school together, so maybe that’s why.”
Five weeks later, on a Wednesday night under lights, in what was also the first season of professionalism, Leinster beat Pontypridd 23-22 in Lansdowne Road to top their “group” and earn a home semi-final.
“I remember getting a cheque, I think for £175 to play because you were technically allowed to be paid at that stage,” says Woods.
Leinster’s first of 16 semi-finals was against Cardiff in Lansdowne Road on December 30th, 1995.
“Conor [O’Shea] was with London Irish and Conor came home on standby in case I failed the fitness test. I failed the fitness test, I’d say at 11 o’clock. It was a horrendous day, blowing a gale and freezing, so I was quite happy. It wasn’t a day for me,” recalls Woods with a self-mocking chuckle.
The attendance was 7,350.
“Which was big in those days,” he stresses. “You’d get 2-4,000 max in those days in Donnybrook. It was decent, put it that way, although we played Australia in 1992 and there was probably 20,000 people there; they had won the World Cup in 1991 and they were fully loaded.”
A European Cup semi-final was unchartered and underappreciated territory.
He added: “It was totally unknown. It was something a bit different, playing someone from a different country in a game that meant something as opposed to a friendly. We played against New South Wales that season and I think we played eight games. Up to that point we played four games a year.
“Cardiff were the most stacked team of the Welsh at that stage. They were the equivalent of Leinster now. As a spectacle, the game wasn’t great. The wind was horrific. Mary Robinson was President and they didn’t bring her out on to the pitch because it was so windy.”
Leinster were beaten 23-14 and nobody was really complaining.
“I don’t remember being overly bothered that we lost. We did all right because we got to the semis, even if we only won two matches to get there. It was enjoyable and it was a bit different.”
Toulouse beat Cardiff at Cardiff Arms Park in the final a week later, with 21,800 in attendance, to give the European Cup lift-off.
Whether it was over-confidence or not I don’t know
— Niall Woods
It was seven years later when Leinster reached the semi-finals, meeting Perpignan at Lansdowne Road in April 2003. As evidenced by the 37,800 attendance, expectations were altogether higher.
Woods had retired in 2001 after a playing career with Trinity, Blackrock, Leinster, Ireland, London Irish and Harlequins. He then worked for the English Players’ Union before coming home in January 2003 to set up the Irish Rugby Players’ Union (IRUPA).
But in Leinster’s biggest game of the 2002-03 season, their season ended with an anticlimactic 21-14 defeat.
“They didn’t perform on the day at all,” says Woods. “Whether it was over-confidence or not I don’t know. They never got going. It was hugely disappointing.”
The pivotal matches in Leinster’s history were the Heineken Cup semi-finals against Munster in 2006 at Lansdowne Road and 2009 in Croke Park. Technically, the first was a “home” semi-final, though it was awash in red and felt like an away match. The second was an “away” tie that was more akin to a neutral-venue fixture given the even split between blue and red in a record-setting attendance of 82,208.
“In 2006, ‘Rog’ dummies and scores under the sticks and in ’09 Drico intercepts Rog’s pass to score. They were the two defining moments,” says Woods with reference to Ronan O’Gara and Brian O’Driscoll.
“The difference in colour was stark. In ’06 it was so red, when the Leinster supporters weren’t as strong as they are now, whereas in ’09 it was even.”
Leinster had reached a point of no return. The 25-6 win led to a breakthrough triumph three weeks later against Leicester in Murrayfield.
“It had started with the quarter-final in ‘Quins, the bloodgate game and that [6-5] win gave them belief. Even the final in Edinburgh was a poor enough game against Leicester, but it would always be scrappy against them. But they managed to do it.
“In the semi, Leinster were notably better on the day. The [2009] Grand Slam probably helped. There was better quality throughout the Leinster team than there had been three years earlier, especially with Isa [Nacewa] and Rocky [Elsom] there.”
Leinster have reached another 10 semi-finals since that day, winning seven of them, and the key has been earning home semi-finals through their performances in the pool stages. Leinster have won all six ensuing semi-finals at home, whereas they have won only one of four away from home.
Leinster lost away to Toulouse as reigning champions in the 2010 semi-finals, when Johnny Sexton was injured, but have beaten Toulouse in four of the subsequent six semi-finals at home.
There was defeat to Toulon in 2015 at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, when Jimmy Gopperth’s drop-goal attempt to win the game was narrowly wide before Leinster were beaten in extra-time. They lost a last-four tie against Clermont in Lyon in 2017 and lost behind closed doors in La Rochelle four years ago.
Viewed in that context, Leinster’s 19-15 win over a brilliant Clermont side [Julien Bonnaire, Morgan Parra, Wesley Fofana, Aurélien Rougerie and co] in Bordeaux in 2012 has arguably been their finest semi-final victory of all so far.
“That was the inside pass to Rob Kearney and Cian Healy’s finish,” says Woods – who stepped down as the IRUPA CEO in January 2011 to set up what is now the Navy Blue sports agency – of the famous Joe Schmidt strike play.
There was also the end-game stand on their own line, Gordon D’Arcy’s tackle on Fofana to dislodge the ball before he grounded it and Seán O’Brien hanging on for dear life in the jackal to earn the final turnover penalty.
“I’d say that was their best ever semi-final win, considering who it was against and it was away from home,” says Woods, and to put that victory in context it was only the second semi-final win in France by an Irish or UK side – Munster having achieved the first in 2000 against Toulouse, also in Bordeaux.
Reaching semi-finals should never be taken for granted, albeit as Woods says: “Leinster do have the majority of the Irish team and their budget is massive, above the French clubs as well as the English clubs now. But if Leinster are in any way off, the Saints have enough firepower to do damage.”
Indeed, as history shows us, nor do semi-finals, even at home, come with any guarantees.
“Go back to ’03, against Perpignan. They should have beaten Perpignan. They should never have lost that.”
Leinster’s semi-final record: Played 15, Won 8, Lost 7
1995-96: Leinster 14 Cardiff 23 (Lansdowne Road)
2002-03: Leinster 14 Perpignan 21 (Lansdowne Road)
2005-06: Leinster 6 Munster 30 (Lansdowne Road)
2008-09: Munster 6 Leinster 25 (Croke Park)
2009-10: Toulouse 26 Leinster 16 (Le Stadium, Toulouse)
2010-11: Leinster 32 Toulouse 23 (Aviva Stadium)
2011-12: Clermont 15 Leinster 19 (Stade Chaban-Delmas, Bordeaux)
2014-15: Toulon 25 Leinster 20 aet (Stade Velodrome, Marseille)
2016-17: Clermont 27 Leinster 22 (Matmut de Gerland, Lyon)
2017-18: Leinster 38 Scarlets 16 (Aviva Stadium)
2018-19: Leinster 30 Toulouse 12 (Aviva Stadium)
2020-21: La Rochelle 32 Leinster 23 (Stade Deflandre, La Rochelle)
2021-22: Leinster 40 Toulouse 17 (Aviva Stadium)
2022-23: Leinster 41 Toulouse 22 (Aviva Stadium)
2023-24: Leinster 20 Northampton 17 (Croke Park)
