Lucky Leinster hang on to book Champions Cup final spot

Back where they feel they belong, but, boy, did Leinster make hard work of it.

Their quest for a fifth star will go to the final day after holding off a late Toulon surge to win 29-25 in the Investec Champions Cup semi-final at Aviva Stadium.

Leo Cullen's side will face either holders Bordeaux-Begles or Bath, who meet on Sunday, in the final in Bilbao in three weeks' time.

It's the ninth time Leinster have reached the decider and the first since 2024 when they lost to Toulouse.

The hosts were missing a swathe of first-team regulars through injury and played well in enough patches to see off a Toulon side who were contesting a first semi-final since 2015.

Tries from Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Garry Ringrose and Caelan Doris, with nine points from Harry Byrne, was good enough with Leinster having to withstand a tense final 10 minutes when Toulon struck for two converted tries.

After last season's seismic semi-final shock home loss to Northampton Saints, Leinster will gladly take scraping over the line but will have much to work on ahead of the decider in Sam Memes.

It was a nervy opening 10 minutes from the hosts, with out-half Harry Byrne missing a kick from from in front of the posts before failing to find touch from another penalty.

Toulon signalled their intent by running from their own 22 early on but when that yielded a long-range penalty, full-back Melvyn Jaminet was also off target.

Soon after Doris turned the ball over with Jamison Gibson-Park's kick ahead providing the platform for the opening try.

Leinster moved the ball quickly off the lineout and the scrum-half kept the pace up and fed Van der Flier who put the Toulon defence on the back foot.

From there, Gibson-Park had eager runners and Conan (above) couldn't be stopped by three tacklers as he powered his way over with Byrne adding the conversion.

Jaminet responded with a penalty after an obstruction on the Leinster 10 metre line, and then there was a lengthy hold-up when Robbie Henshaw collided with number 8 Mikheil Shioshvili; the Ireland centre was taken off on a stretcher, giving a thumbs-up before leaving the pitch.

The hosts looked much slicker, fast hands and options either side of the ball-carriers causing the Toulon defence problems.

And they thought they had a second after Andrew Porter's carries brought them close to the line but the TMO spotted a knock on by Gibson-Park under the posts.

It was the French side, winners of the tournament three times between 2013 and 2015, who struck next, Jaminet landing another penalty from distance with Byrne's subsequent restart going out on the full much to the disappointment of the majority of the 38,555 in attendance.

Leinster had the upper hand in the scrum but couldn't take advantage of another penalty with a handling error halting the move.

But when Seta Tuicuvu sloppily neglected to call a mark, Leinster struck for their second.

Toulon conceded a penalty from a lineout maul and a tap penalty came quickly to Van der Flier (below), who got the ball down on the line close to the posts.

The Top 14 side had little in the way of territory but Leinster's discipline slipped in a costly final five minutes of the half with Toulon scoring their first try and seeing their opponents reduced to 13 players.

After a series of infringements including one that saw Porter sin-binned for a high tackle on Charles Ollivon, Toulon kicked a penalty to the corner.

A series of carries over the gainline gave scrum-half Ben White space to switch the play, getting the ball to Tuicuvu, who raced in on the wing.

Within that passage, Toulon were playing an advantage and referee Luke Pearce produced another yellow, this time for offside against Byrne, while Rieko Ioane was replaced by prop Jerry Cahir as a frantic first half came to an end with Leinster leading 14-11

Leinster, off the back of a superb Tommy O'Brien take, got a settling score four minutes into the second half.

Hooker Teddy Baubigny went to the bin for a high tackle on Van der Flier and Leinster tapped the penalty. The flanker played scrum-half with Ringrose skilfully taking in a low pass before barging over.

The centre (above) took the kick himself but missed the target.

Porter, Ioane, and Byrne were back on the park when Leinster won another scrum penalty, this time the out-half making no mistake off the tee and pushing the lead to 11 points.

The game became scrappy as the benches were emptied and replacement Esteban Abadie wasted a great chance when he flung the ball at Nacho Brex after breaking from halfway.

The visitors began to tire, aimless kicking with poor chases the sign their race was almost run, but another missed penalty from Byrne, after a high tackle on Ringrose, meant they were still hanging on.

But the pressure eventually told on Pierre Mignot's side with Doris reaching out to touch down after Leinster had spent almost five minutes inside the 22. Byrne converted and it looked like the result was beyond doubt, 29-11 with 13 minutes left.

But Toulon, who had beaten Leinster in all four previous meetings, hit back hard. Serin dummied close to the line before dotting down and Gael Drean cut inside two defenders to score after Leinster handed them position with a kick out on the full.

Jaminet converted both tries and all of a sudden there was just four points between the team.

Jaminet and Drean broke from deep and made it to the 22 but a knock on let Leinster off the hook and a huge sigh of relief sounded across the Dublin 4 stadium.

Leinster survive to play another day.

SCORERS

Leinster - Tries: Conan, Van der Flier, Ringrose, Doris
Cons: Byrne (3)
Pen: Byrne

Toulon - Tries: Tuicuvu, Serin, Drean
Cons: Jaminet (2)
Pens: Jaminet (2)

Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O'Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Rieko Ioane; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tom Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher (Sheehan 75), Jerry Cahir (Ioane 40-44) (Porter 75), Rabah Slimani (Clarkson 70), Alex Soroka (Conan 56), Scott Penny (Van der Flier HIA 47), Luke McGrath, Sam Prendergast (O'Brien 69), Jamie Osborne (Henshaw 15).

Toulon: Melvyn Jaminet; Gaël Drean, Nacho Brex, Jérémy Sinzelle, Seta Tuicuvu; Tomas Albornoz, Ben White; Jean-Baptiste Gros, Teddy Baubigny, Kyle Sinckler; Corentin Mezou, David Ribbans; Junior Kpoku, Charles Ollivon, Mikheil Shioshvili.

Replacements: Gianmarco Lucchesi (Kpoku 47-54) (Baubigny 66), Daniel Brennan (Gros 61), Beka Gigashvili (Sinckler 54), Matthias Halagahu (Mezou 61), Zach Mercer (Shioshvili 54), Baptiste Serin (White 54), Esteban Abadie (Kpoku 54), Mathis Ferte (Sinzelle 71) .

Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)