Champions Cup: Leinster vs Toulouse is the final we deserve, and want
So there we have it; seven weekends of Investec Champions Cup action has delivered the final many wanted, and expected.
When the final concludes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 25 May, it’ll either see French giants Toulouse extend their record of European trophies from five to six, or see Irish stalwarts Leinster move level with their opposition on five titles.
This is the final of the elites, of the galacticos of European rugby.
Champions Cup success
On Saturday Leinster hung on in the end against Northampton Saints to win 20-17 in front of 82,300 at Croke Park, a record attendance for the Champions Cup, while 24 hours later Toulouse outplayed Harlequins in a points-fest to topple the Londoners 38-26 in the south of France.
The result? A final worthy of the best stadium in the world.
But it is not just the teams on the pitch that are battling it out come the final in three weeks time.
It is Leinster mastermind Leo Cullen and twice Springbok World Cup winning coach Jacques Nienaber – joined by Emmett Farrell, who has been at the club since 2003, and Welshman Robin McBryde – versus a Toulouse coaching team with a combined 800 appearances for the club headed up by Ugo Mola and with 83-cap All Black Jerome Kaino propping him up.
It is a team who can sell out the Aviva Stadium or Croke Park in just hours versus a rugby team who look at home in Toulouse’s 33,000 capacity football stadium rather than their modest – by French rugby standards – Stade Ernest-Wallon.
And it is a provincial team from the Irish capital boasting much of the international contingent that won the Six Nations this year against a French outfit with some of the world’s most watchable players.
That’s the final that awaits us.
Seeds
And sure, it is a shame that neither Northampton Saints or Harlequins could reach the showpiece event on behalf of the English Premiership, but the famous single-tier south stand of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – which houses 17,000 – will be bouncing with fans of both clubs and neutrals.
In any international club competition, whether that be football’s Champions League or the Davis Cup in tennis, if the team you support isn’t there you want a final between the best. Leinster and Toulouse are that; the top two seeds from the 24 teams that started their campaigns in mid-December, facing off for European glory.
Leinster have featured in the last two finals, losing both – including one at their second home, the Aviva in Dublin – to French side La Rochelle.
La Rochelle’s Irish boss Ronan O’Gara coached his Atlantic coast side to their first final in 2021, where they lost to Toulouse.
Five of the last six finals before this year’s showpiece have featured one of these two sides. They’re the dominant forces, the powerhouses, of European rugby.
Toulouse vs Leinster warm-up
Uniquely rugby’s European final is preceded by the second-tier Challenge Cup final at the same stadium one day earlier.
And like the Champions Cup it will this year be contested between the top two seeds: the South African Sharks and Gloucester Rugby.
Both are lowly achievers in their respective domestic leagues, but this competition represents the chance to qualify for the premium competition.
The Sharks are proof the South African franchises can compete until the very end in this competition, having had to beat Clermont in London rather than Durban due to tournament restrictions.
Gloucester toppled an international-stacked Benetton on Saturday to reach their fifth final, a joint record for the second tier.
So the next date in the calendar is finals weekend. And what a high quality two games we have in store for ourselves.