Wicklow men play big roles as Leinster see off Northampton Saints in Champions Cup semi-final

Jack Conan’s massive moment when he helped win a Leinster penalty in a ruck will go down as a significant factor of Leo Cullen’s side escaping from Croke Park with passage through to the Champions Cup secured.

Leading by 15-3 at the break thanks to three James Lowe tries and a fine showing from Josh van der Flier, the Northampton Saints came roaring back into this game, and, with the scores sitting precariously at 20-17 to the Blues, Conan and Caelan Doris came up with the goods in a late ruck.

Given their early dominance, it was hard to believe they needed that superb piece of bravery from Doris and Bray’s Conan to thwart a late Saints surge but that was the reality of a strange game. They’ll need to be better against Toulouse or Harlequins in London in three weeks’ time.

It had started so well and Leinster led after 11 minutes thanks to some Jamison Gibson-Park magic.

The scrum-half’s kick in behind wasn’t dealt with by George Hendy and that led to a Leinster scrum.

With Robbie Henshaw, Joe McCarthy and Ryan Baird to the fore, they won the gainline and Courtney Lawes gave away a cynical penalty.

Gibson-Park wasn’t hanging around and he quickly tapped and caught a slew of Northampton players napping as Lowe gleefully caught it, stepped James Ramm and scored.

Byrne converted and then got his team going again by intercepting Fin Smith’s pass. He didn’t have the pace to score himself, so he sought support and again the Saints coughed up a penalty.

Byrne went to the corner, they mauled at the tail and Doris spun off and surged for the line. The defenders turned him, so he popped the ball off the deck and Gibson-Park was on hand with another magic touch to bat it out to the waiting Lowe to make it 12-0.

The out-half missed the conversion, but already the lead seemed insurmountable for the English side who’d made nine handling errors in the first 24 minutes and were being suffocated by Leinster’s defence.

Andrew Porter forced a penalty that Byrne kicked over and then Northampton were in front of the kicker on the restart and Porter won another one at the scrum.

This time, Lawes thwarted a promising attack by getting over the ball to force a penalty and that earned them a spell of possession in the opposition half.

They got outside the blitz with some slick hands, but James Ramm couldn’t hold George Furbank’s pass as the line beckoned and they had to settle for a penalty from Smith to get them off the mark.

Baird claimed the restart brilliantly and Leinster looked for one final surge before the break, but the Saints survived as Josh van der Flier knocked on in the tackle and they’d have been relieved to be only 12 down at the interval.

Again, Leinster started the second-half like a train and a Tadhg Furlong offload got them on the front-foot.

Baird picked up a loose ball and went for a big gallop into the ‘22. Somehow, Robbie Henshaw managed to stay in touch on the right wing and, when they swung left, Dan Sheehan brilliantly kept it alive for Ciarán Frawley and he passed wide for Lowe to complete his hat-trick.

Northampton kept going and, after two big set-piece wins on their own line, Leinster’s resistance was finally broken as Porter and Jordan Larmour got in a muddle and conspired to hand Hendy his own kick to score.

Smith reduced the margin to 10 with the conversion and, after Byrne missed a handy penalty into the Hill 16 end, the Leinster defence had to kick in again as Gibson-Park’s poach penalty relieved more pressure.

Still, the 10-point lead meant the Saints had hope and they got their chance when Gibson-Park struggled to deal with a Tommy Freeman kick in behind and had to concede a 5m scrum.

Northampton forced a penalty, so they tapped the penalty and, after a few close phases, replacement winger Tom Seabrook went over in the corner to ensure a tight finish.

Smith converted and it was a three point game with five to go. Leinster‘s attempts to play their way to the finish came a cropper and the Saints countered brilliantly, Leinster just about scrambled and a combination of Doris and Jack Conan forced the turnover that saved the day.

Scorers – Leinster: J Lowe 3 tries, R Byrne pen, con

Northampton: G Hendy, T Seabrook try each, F Smith 2 cons, pen

LEINSTER – C

Frawley (H Byrne 80); J Larmour (J O’Brien 73), R Henshaw, J Osborne, J Lowe; R Byrne, J Gibson-Park; A Porter (C Healy 72), D Sheehan (R Kelleher 53), T Furlong (M Ala’alatoa 61); R Molony (J Jenkins 53), J McCarthy; R Baird, J van der Flier (J Conan 53), C Doris (capt).

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS – G Furbank; J Ramm, T Freeman, F Dingwall, G Hendy (T Seabrook 69); F Smith, A Mitchell (T James 69); A Waller (E Iyogun 55), C Langdon (S Matavesi 58), T Davison (E Millar-Mills 58); A Moon (T Mayavanua 69), A Coles; C Lawes (capt), S Graham, J Augustus.

Referee: M Raynal (France)

Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan’s exclusive take on the day’s news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.