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Leinster v Northampton Saints - All You Need to Know

Updated / Friday, 3 May 2024 21:21
Leinster and Northampton Saints meet for the 11th time
Leinster and Northampton Saints meet for the 11th time

Familiar territory for Leinster, but not the most familiar location.

It's a 15th Investec Champions Cup semi-final for Leo Cullen's side, with only Toulouse - who play at this stage for the 16th time on Sunday - having been here more.

Semi-finals in the Aviva Stadium have become a near-annual tradition for the four-time champions, but this time they will head north of the Liffey to Croke Park, where an 82,300 sell-out crowd is expected for their showdown with the Northampton Saints.

Leinster have been to Croker once before, defeating Munster 25-6 at GAA HQ back in 2009, but with the Aviva Stadium undergoing prep work ahead of the Europa League final later this month, the province were cleared for a long-awaited return to Drumcondra.

The Saints stand between Leinster and an eighth final appearance, with this game being a repeat of the 2011 decider, which Leinster won 33-22 in Cardiff, having memorably come from 22-6 down at half time.

The winner will book their ticket to London for the final at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium later this month, where they will face either Toulouse or Harlequins, who meet in the second semi-final on Sunday afternoon.

ONLINE

We'll have a live blog of Leinster v Northampton Saints, as well as a match report and reaction from both semi-finals on www.rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.

TV

Leinster v Northampton Saints (5.30pm) is live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, with coverage getting under way at 4.45pm.

Toulouse v Harlequins (Sunday 3pm) will be shown on TNT Sports and ITV.

RADIO

There will be live commentary of Leinster v Northampton on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.

WEATHER

It's expected to be cloudy and around 12C in Dublin on Saturday evening, with a chance of rain showers, although the worst of the rain is expected earlier in the day.

There's also a good chance of rain in Toulouse on Sunday afternoon for the weekend's second semi-final, with a muggy 22C expected.

Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

An 11th meeting of Leinster and the Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup, and history shines favourably on this weekend's hosts.

The only previous Northampton victory in this head to head came back at the Aviva Stadium in December 2013, with their five subsequent meetings all being won by Leinster, and by an average of 29 points.

While Northampton won this tournament back in 2000, the Premiership side haven't been among the contenders too often. Since that 2000 final win over Munster, the Saints have played 13 knockout games and won just five, two of which came in 2011 on their run to the final, where they gave up a 16-point half time lead to lose to Leinster 33-22.

From the teams that played that day, only Cian Healy remains in the Leinster matchday squad, while Courtney Lawes and Alex Waller are the survivors from the Saints. Both head coaches this weekend, Leo Cullen and Phil Dowson, also started that final 13 years ago.

Northampton have been slowly building for a few years now, with Dowson building on the foundations set by New Zealander Chris Boyd, and are competing on two fronts, sitting top of the Premiership table while also winning six out of six so far in Europe.

Two of those Champions Cup wins came against Munster, as they dug out an impressive 26-23 win at Thomond Park in the pool stage in January, before a more comprehensive win over the province in the last-16.

Leinster, meanwhile, have cruised through to another home semi-final, saving their best performance for the quarter-final in which they saw off La Rochelle 40-13.

Leinster: Ciarán Frawley; Jordan Larmour, Robbie Henshaw, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Ross Molony, Joe McCarthy; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Michael Ala'alatoa, Jason Jenkins, Jack Conan, Luke McGrath, Harry Byrne, Jimmy O'Brien.

Northampton Saints: George Furbank; James Ramm, Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall, George Hendy; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Alex Waller, Curtis Langdon, Trevor Davison; Alex Moon, Alex Coles; Courtney Lawes (capt), Sam Graham, Juarno Augustus.

Replacements: Sam Matavesi, Emmanuel Iyogun, Elliot Millar Mills, Temo Mayanavanua, Angus Scott-Young, Tom James, Tom Litchfield, Tom Seabrook.

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (FFR)

Five-time champions Toulouse have seen their campaign ended at this stage, by Leinster, in each of the last two seasons, but the French giants will be big favourites to see off the challenge of Quins and advance to their seventh final.

Ugo Mola's side have blazed their way through the tournament this season, and ahead of the semi-finals weekend, they lead the championship in points scored, tries scored, metres made and clean breaks, while they're averaging 6.6 tries per game.

Their semi-final win over Exeter Chiefs was a classic example of how deadly they can be. In a 12-minute spell just after half time, Toulouse went from 19-17 behind to 45-19 in front, before strolling to a 64-26 win.

Quins played out an equally baffling quarter-final, with Tabai Matson's side winning a pulsating game away to Bordeaux-Begles 42-41 in France.

At the start of the season, the Premiership side had never won a knockout tie in this competition in five previous attempts, only to do it twice in eight days when they knocked out Glasgow and Bordeaux last month.

The sides have previously met this season in the competition, with Harlequins landing a couple of blows on the French side at The Stoop in their December pool stage meeting, only for Toulouse to run out 47-19 winners.

Toulouse: Blair Kinghorn; Juan Cruz Mallia, Paul Costes, Pita Ahki, Matthis Lebel; Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont (capt); Cyril Baille, Peato Mauvaka, Dorian Aldegheri; Thibaud Flament, Emmanuel Meafou; Francois Cros, Jack Willis, Alexandre Roumat

Replacements: Julien Marchand, Rodrigue Neti, Joel Merkler, Richie Arnold, Mathis Castro-Ferreira, Paul Graou, Santiago Chocobares, Thomas Ramos

Harlequins: Tyrone Green; Louis Lynagh, Luke Northmore, Andre Esterhuizen, Cadan Murley; Marcus Smith, Danny Care; Fin Baxter, Jack Walker, Will Collier; Irne Herbst, Stephen Lewies (capt); Chandler Cunningham-South, Will Evans, Alex Dombrandt.

Replacements: Sam Riley, Joe Marler, Simon Kerrod, George Hammond, James Chisholm, Will Porter, Jarrod Evans, Oscar Beard.

Referee: Andy Brace (IRFU)

As well as the Champions Cup, the Challenge Cup semi-finals also take place this weekend, and while there's no Irish involvement, there's plenty of Irish interest.

The first semi-final between the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Clermont Auvergne at 12.30pm on Saturday will be worth noting for Connacht and Ulster, as well as multiple other URC teams.

If the Sharks go on to win the Challenge Cup, they will assume one of the URC's eight Champions Cup qualification spots, ensuring seventh place in the URC table would be required for others to qualify. If Clermont win, then Connacht and Ulster can set their sights on a top-eight finish.

Gloucester and Benetton kick off on Saturday at 4pm, and while Benetton could also take one of the URC's Champions Cup qualification spots, the Italians are well-placed to qualify via their league position.

FULL LIST OF FIXTURES AND RESULTS FOR CHAMPIONS CUP AND CHALLENGE CUP

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