THE BIG DAY is upon us. The 24th Heineken Champions Cup final is down for decision and the best two teams in Europe will tear lumps off one another for the right to lift the trophy.
From 5pm Saturday evening we’ll see whether England can claim a ninth European title via a third for Saracens. Or whether Leinster will become the most successful side in the tournament’s history by taking a fifth crown, in what would be an eighth success for Ireland.
Before we completely pack down for action, here’s a reminder of how these two brilliant sides got to the big stage in Newcastle’s St James’ Park.
Out of the blocks
Opening night saw Leinster begin their title defence. And they looked every bit a champion side as they made short work of Wasps thanks to an early burst from Sean Cronin and a cracker from James Lowe.
Saracens had their toughest task of the pool stage first up, a trip north to Glasgow. The Warriors were more than willing, but just unable to break open the English champions during a 3-13 loss.
The one time Glasgow did think they had cracked the code, Maro Itoje joined in the celebrations.
Maro Itoje troll level = 💯
— Watch the Champions Cup final live on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) October 14, 2018
• Glasgow steal the ball
• Ref blows for penalty
• Glasgow players don't hear whistle, score try, celebrate wildly...
• Maro Itoje joins in! pic.twitter.com/ULOkgYcLga
Round two
French opposition for both sides, but Saracens romped to victory over Lyon after Itoje romped over the try-line from 50 metres out. Ridiculous stuff for a lock to be at.
The following day, Leinster and Toulouse played out one of the games of the year, and lost in Europe for the first (and still only) time since the 2017 semi-final defeat to Clermont.
Toulouse were back playing champagne rugby and it was glorious to watch (from 2.20 in the video below).
December back-to-backs
December can often be about digging your way out of a hole and Leinster certainly battled their way to ‘win ugly’ in Bath thanks to a Jordan Larmour intercept before they casually carved through the same opponents a week later at the Aviva.
Similarly enough, though the home and away matches were the other way around, Sarries had to hold their nerve while being run close by the Blues in Cardiff – Jamie George’s late try sealed a 16-26 win. A week earlier, the Blues had been swatted aside in a 7-try 51-25 loss.
Closing out the pool
Leinster took control of the pool by offering Toulouse a signal of what was to come in their later meeting in the competition, Dave Kearney’s athleticism helped the province to a 29-13 bonus point win.
Still watching it 🙌
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) January 13, 2019
What a finish 👏@kearney_dave #LEIvTOU#JoinTheRoar pic.twitter.com/UWObf4kPRI
Meanwhile, Saracens’ march to the knockouts was confirmed thanks to the power and footwork of Nick Tompkins. They sealed a bonus point with 20 minutes to spare away to Lyon and the hosts were restricted to just three points before the 70th minute mark.
Qualification secured, Saracens could afford to let their hair down for round six.
Unfortunately for Glasgow, they seemed to only succeed in poking the bear by scoring three tries in the opening 21 minutes. And so their 17-19 lead led to a 38-19 defeat.
Leinster ended the pool stage in the Ricoh Arena and made it a rare happy hunting ground for recent Irish sides, with Max Deegan, Rory O’Loughlin and Noel Reid combining for a gem of a try to ice the cake.
Familiar opponents for the quarters
As if twice wasn’t enough, Glasgow were thrown in to face Saracens a third time.
In the knockout version of the rivalry, Dave Rennie’s men managed to put 27 points on the board. Saracens cranked up the intensity again, though, and scored seven tries to continue their winning streak.
Leinster were heavy favourites at home to their neighbours to the north, but amid an immense Ulster effort a rare blip in the meteoric rise of Jacob Stockdale came as a massive let-off for the champions.
Of course, you make your own luck too. And Ross Byrne had to play through the pain barrier before slotting a nerveless late winner.
Semi-final showdowns
Saracens were met head-on by Munster in Coventry and the match was developing nicely into a tense and tight arm-wrestle… right up until the point Michael Rhodes broke through in the third minute of the second half.
Billy Vunipola was jeered throughout for his support of Israel Folau, but after he sealed the win with a late try, one Munster fan literally crossed the line when delivering his own points of view.
Jonathan Sexton pulled on the Leinster jersey for the first time in 2019 as Toulouse arrived at the Aviva for the semi-final.
With Lowe again in rampant form, the reigning champions were an irresistible force as they earned their fifth Champions Cup final appearance.
Something has got to give.
Gavan Casey, Murray Kinsella and Bernard Jackman tee up Saturday’s Champions Cup final and look at the backroom problems in Munster.:
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Defence is the biggest difference that sexton ( and henshaw) will bring. Taking the line up is a very strong part of his game. Leinster over the past few months have been very passive in defence this has to stop. Seanie looks like he’s going to start ( not sure I’d go with that but hey) he needs to dominate contact, so far this year he’s been very passive, he’s not go the skills and ability of Max or the work rate of Ruddock so he needs his best game in about 2 seasons.
@Chris Mc: O’Brien shouldn’t start this game. He has no form at all. Leinster have plenty of practice winning massive games without him.
@grandslamkbo: I agree, my backrow who be Fardy, Conan and Ruddock. But it looks like Sean is starting.
@Chris Mc:
So Chris do you think J Lowe wont make the team , even if we need tries ::can you let us see your team ::thanks
@Martin Quinn: I never said lowe not to start. I wouldn’t pick O’Brien.
My team
Healy, Cronin Furlong
Ryan and toner
Fardy toner and Ruddock
McGrath and sexton
Henshaw ringrose in the centre
Lowe, Kearney and larmour
With Leinster back to more or less full strength they should have too much powder for Toulouse. It’ll be a cracking game but I think home advantage is worth around 7 and with the bookies calling it an 8 point Leinster win I’d say that’s about right, maybe even slightly more.
The two key factors will be the form of their returning key men – sexton and ringrose especially and secondly they need to tighten up defensively. They’re leaking on average 24 points a game over the last 7 games so if they can bring that number down then there should be handy enough winners against a young but very talented Toulouse side.
@Jim Demps: gun powder. Toulouse like leaking points as well haha
@Fred McHugh: they absolutely do but getting into a high scoring slug out wouldn’t be the best idea for Leinster. Structure and wear them down and they’ll walk it.
Your anti Leinster bias is old and predictable. You might pepper it with occasional compliments but everyone knows you can’t stand us.
At least some of us admit we can’t stand the other.
@Fred McHugh: apologies Fred that reply was meant for Jim Dumps.
@Baz Dunne: i thought you had me muted? Couldn’t go a week without me eh?
@Jim Demps: you get some amount of stick on here. Good job your not sensitive. Anyways tell your mob to keep up their end and we’ll see you in the final.
@Chris Mc: era I take no notice. If some grown man spends his day slinging insults at me then I figure let him at it, he can’t have too many important things going for him. Once they make it personal I normally just ignore them until they want to talk about rugby. The only person I’ve muted is Martin though.
I fully expect munster to win. It won’t be easy but the result is there for us if we show up.
@Chris Mc: bless you Chris you say every yr there’ll be an all Irish final and it never happens. Can’t see it happening this yr.. in fact I’d say Sarries v Toulouse is more likely than Leinster v Munster in my opinion.
@Jim Demps: He misses you Jim. Baz gets lonely with all those Dubs ; )
@Baz Dunne: It’s going to be a Munster vs.Leinster HC & Pro 14 final .Believe Baz , believe.Eire Abu !!Éire Abú!!!
@Baz Dunne: this is the third year in a row where both sides got to the semis. It might be this year, I hope so. As long as we win the 5th I’ll be ok but it would be so sweet to beat munster in the final.
@Baz Dunne:
Baz I hope are not annoyed with me, just because he has Muted me and not you, does not mean you need to up your game !! He does run away when things get hard and someone sees his hidden knife jabs at all things Leinster.
@Martin Quinn:
Just love his comments saying you are a “grown man spends his day slinging insults at me” Baz all your posts are about 2 sentence’s long and you post maybe 2 posts where his 10 posts a page tells it all >> One page had 28 posts ::WOW now he is hoping for the 42.ie to hire him ::the lad has a problem ::and he says you “cant have too many important things going for you”
Keep happy : ) ; )
@Fred McHugh:
Regarding the 24 points per game I feel we were through to the play off for all that time. I feel it would a lot less if we put a better team out, but it does not matter now as it all comes down to this weekend .
Regarding Munster
I believe Munster will bring out one of their famious European games and get through (and I may have a go at some posters but I will always cheer for Munster in these games) Wish you the very best
COYBIR
“We can’t kick loosely to them or their counter attack Will punish us.”
He has a tenacity to kick when there’s a need to keep possession, I hope he remembers this during the game. COYBIG
@Con Cussed: You really are concussed.
@Camroc: What for? This is the biggest weakness in his game, other scrum halfs too within the Irish setup, they keep kicking the ball away when we need to protect it. We often kick the ball to the opposition at crucial parts of the game (often the last few minutes) and have lost games as a result.
@Con Cussed: I think some of that is he’s trying to show joe he can do the Conor Murrary role. There’s a time and place for kicking the ball away and Luke’s not really a master at it.
@Con Cussed: Which games have we lost as a result?