Clermont Auvergne 27 -22 Leinster
Leinster mounted a stirring comeback in their Champion's Cup semi-final against Clermont Auvergne but it just wasn't enough
Leinster had trailed 15-3 at the break, and looked down and out going into the second half after an incredibly disappointing opening period from Leo Cullen's men.
Perceli Yato and David Strettle ran in relativley simple tries for Clermont, exposing Leinster out wide, while Jonny Sexton split the posts with a late penalty.
A sin-binning for captain Isa Nacewa also for Leo Cullen's men, who sorely missed the likes of Sean O'Brien and Jamie Heaslip at the breakdown.
Despite Sexton's penalty with the clock in the red, Leinster seemed to have an impossible task to try and take on Clermont in the second half. But, Cullen's men emerged a different team; dynamic at the breakdown and enthusiastic in their running game, while cutting out all the errors in their passing game.
LC: "very proud of the effort. We felt we were in the game at HT and huge credit to the players for going at it." #ASMvLEI pic.twitter.com/bfc5xTMDor
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) April 23, 2017
Jonny Sexton reduced the deficit to just 3 points early on with 3 successive penalties, before Dan Leavy crossed to seemingly give Leinster the lead in the 53rd minute.
But, Leavy had infringed at the ruck some 60 metres back, and instead of leading Leinster found themselves trailing by six when Parra converted the resulting penalty.
A Lopez drop goal again looked to put the game out of Leinster's reach, but Garry Ringrose scored a superb solo try to bring the score back to 21-19. Ringrose broke in the midfield, dummied outside to Isa Nacewa and then accelerated through the Clermont half to dot down.
Clermont pushed on in the final 10, and Leinster, shy a number of starters, were unable to keep in touch.
Speaking after the game to Sky Sport, outhalf Jonny Sexton was clearly hurting after the loss;
"We felt we could still win it at half time. In the first half we made a lot of errors...we gave them some scores we needed to make them work harder for in a match like this. We needed to make them doubt early on. We gave them a headstart, fifteen points, and you can't do that in a semi-final. We're gutted. We gave it everything, we've trained hard for this. Yeah, gutted."
Leo Cullen's men suffer another semi-final heartbreak in France, 27-22.
