JONATHAN SEXTON RESISTED the urge to spend too long bemoaning some critical calls from the officials in the immediate aftermath of today’s gripping 27 – 22 Champions Cup semi-final loss to Clermont.
However, there can be no denying the importance of the 55th minute decision from Welsh TMO Jon Mason.
Having trailed 15 - 0 in the first-half, the visitors fought back to 15 – 12 and looked to have forced their way into the lead through a Dan Leavy finish after a massive Fergus McFadden break.
However, a check was called on the score and the TMO advised referee Nigel Owens, who was struggling to see the replay for himself, that Leavy had held the ankle of Clermont’s Aurelien Rougerie at the back of the ruck, preventing him from filling the space invaded by McFadden.
Rather than Sexton having a kick to make the score 15 – 19, Morgan Parra put his side 18 – 12 ahead with the resulting penalty on Leinster’s 10-metre line. A 10-point swing.
“I think he tackled him in the ruck,” said a frustrated Sexton when interviewed by Sky Sports post-match, “maybe held him a little long, but is he going to make the tackle anyway?”
The out-half cut his own questioning short to pay credit to Clermont, who found their nerve again to hold the lead and take their place against Saracens in the Edinburgh final.
“We can’t complain about the calls, we’ve been beaten by an impressive side, we’ve got to take our hats off and say we weren’t good enough.
“We’ve got a very young squad, only a couple of older heads left like myself and Isa. We don’t have many more days left and we’ve got to tell the young lads that you don’t get many chances at it. You’ve got to take every one like it’s your last.
“It’s a new feeling, I’ve never lost in a European semi-final, so it’s a hard thing to take. You’re one step away against the best team in Europe. It’s hard to take.”
After being torn apart early on, the chances of Leinster making the European semi-final a contest looked slim. But the belief was within Leo Cullen’s squad throughout.
“We felt we could still win it at half-time. We made a lot of errors, we gave them some scores that you need to make them work harder for in matches like this.
We needed to make them doubt early on. We gave them a head-start of 15 points and you can’t do that in a semi-final
“We’re gutted, we gave it everything. We’ve trained hard for this and, yeah…”
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