IT’S 11 YEARS since Bryan Habana raced onto Ian Madigan’s searching pass and ripped the hearts from Leinster at the semi-final stage, with RC Toulon reaching — and winning — their third European Cup final on the spin.
LE RCT remain the only side in the competition to have claimed the trophy three times in a row, but that they haven’t met business-end veterans Leinster at any point in the years since illustrates the extent to which Toulon would soon afterwards disappear from the top table, their Galactico era — emblemised by world stars such as Habana, Jonny Wilkinson, Mathieu Bastareaud, Bakkies Botha, and Matt Giteau — reaching its conclusion as colourful comic-book tycoon Mourad Boudjellal sold his majority share in his local club.
Indeed, this decade, Toulon have been more so a Challenge Cup outfit, reaching finals in 2020 and 2022, and lifting the trophy in 2023 — the club’s first piece of silverware since they lifted their third Champions Cup eight years prior.
They returned to the Champions Cup last season after finishing only seventh in the Top 14 in 2022/23 (they would have qualified via their Challenge Cup success in any case). Hard-fought early pool victories away to the Stormers and at home to Glasgow rekindled the old flame: Toulon later scored 72 points to Saracens’ 42 in a memorable last-16 encounter before pushing reigning champions and traditional rivals Toulouse to the brink in a shuddering home quarter-final, ultimately falling three points short at Stade Mayol.
Toulouse edged Toulon in last season's quarter-final. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
Pierre Mignoni’s Toulon have this season prioritised the Champions Cup almost to the same extent as they have the Top 14, but perhaps to their detriment domestically, where they currently sit eighth.
They enter this afternoon’s semi-final with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in season-best form, albeit it’s a small sample size. Their campaign overall has been turbulent to the point that head coach Mignoni stepped away for a month following a 34-14 home loss to Clermont on Valentine’s Day.
“My body gave out on me,” Mignoni explained upon his return in March. “I experienced what you might call a breakdown, a work overload. I felt it coming on, but you always have this feeling of being a superhuman. You’re always taking care of others and not much of yourself.”
Their initial results on this side of Mignoni’s sabbatical would have done little for their coach’s wellbeing: Les Rouge et Noirs were thumped at home by Stade Francais and, a week later, seen off emphatically by second-from-bottom Perpignan.
It was once again the Champions Cup that rejuvenated Toulon. A dramatic one-point home victory over the URC’s then-second-placed side, the Stormers, in the last 16 was backed up by a major upset away to Champions Cup second seeds Glasgow at the quarter-final stage.
Since then, Toulon have turned a corner in the Top 14, obliterating Montauban on the road before producing arguably their most complete performance of the season to annihilate Bayonne at home this day last week.
The Glasgow performance in the Champions Cup last eight, though, was the exemplification of Toulon in late 2025/26: it was mostly a feat of belligerence and grit, the kind of effort often distilled into ‘no-talent moments’ or non-negotiables, and yet the type that is scarcely replicable week to week.
Toulon celebrate their upset victory away to Glasgow. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
It was a game remembered for Ignacio Brex’s wonder-try but it was won mostly the old-fashioned way, in the tight five, an area of the field in which Toulon — at least when at full complement or near enough, as they will be today — are comparable to any other side in the Top 14.
Whereas their squad overall may lack the name-brand recognition of yesteryear to the passive observer, Toulon’s front five — Jean-Baptiste Gros, Teddy Baubigny, Kyle Sinckler; Corentin Mézou and skipper David Ribbans — are incredibly proficient around the fringes on both sides of the ball and they excel in the set piece.
Especially relevant to Leinster are the returns of Andrew Porter and James Ryan, without whom their own front row and second row would arguably be second best on paper to their opposing unit at the Aviva Stadium.
Toulon have scored a third of their Champions Cup tries off scrums, which is by far the highest ratio in Europe’s top tier this season. They tend to use their powerful scrum not as a penalty-generating machine but as a weapon with which to take the legs of their opposing numbers and establish the optimal platform from which the likes of Ben White, Tomás Albornoz and Nacho Brex — three top-class Test players — can strike.
Equally, their attacking maul is among the best in France, where that particular aspect of the game is a huge point of emphasis in comparison to the URC or the English Premiership. Leinster’s defensive maul, in contrast, directly cost them two scores in last Saturday’s defeat to Benetton, and indirectly cost them another. The returns to action of Porter and Ryan in particular are bound to shore up their efforts at the Aviva, but Toulon will be hellbent on causing damage in those exchanges; and much like the scrum, being on the wrong end of maul dominance is physically exhausting for forwards to a degree that is not sufficiently acknowledged in general rugby discourse.
Their true game-breaker in the backline, meanwhile, is undoubtedly right wing Gael Dréan, who lines out opposite Rieko Ioane today. Given both sides’ penchant for keep-ball rugby, it’s unlikely to be a particularly kick-intensive game, which may have informed Leo Cullen’s selection of Ioane, who has struggled under the high ball during otherwise improved performances in recent weeks. But Dréan is a deadly dangerous threat to any opposing players once he receives ball in hand. The 25-year-old, who earned his first France cap during their Six Nations victory over Italy in February, has scored 16 tries in 20 starts across all competitions this season, including seven in the Champions Cup in which he’s the joint top try-scorer.
Toulon's star wing, Gael Dréan. Federico Pestellini / INPHO
Federico Pestellini / INPHO / INPHO
The mission to stop Dréan begins with smothering the likes of fullback Melvyn Jaminet or offloader-in-chief Charles Ollivon, which begs the question as to how Leinster will choose to defend across the board in this semi-final.
Whereas in their two recent Champions Cup knockout games, Leinster’s defence has more closely resembled Ireland’s bend-but-don’t-break approach under Simon Easterby than the typical Jacques Nienaber blitz, they reverted to a more archetypal Nienaber defensive model in Treviso last weekend and were routinely caught on the edges in what was surely a tactical dress rehearsal for today’s encounter.
The result against Benetton can be virtually discarded in that it’s only natural that the majority of Leinster’s players would have had their eye on today’s far more significant game against Toulon. But the inroads carved by the likes of Jacob Umaga, Paolo Odogwu and Ignacio Mendy will still have made for an interesting week for the Leinster coaching staff as they map out a route to victory in this European semi-final against more formidable opposition.
Toulon will be bang up for this game in which they have nothing to lose, really, and only a seismic result to gain. And while the reality remains that Leinster at their best are simply a better team than Toulon in most areas, they may well need their best — or close enough to it — in order to banish the demons from the Northampton defeat last season and book their spot in Bilbao.
***
Ulster’s Challenge Cup semi-final against Exeter is, from this juncture, an altogether more difficult game to call: Richie Murphy’s hosts and Rob Baxter’s visitors are each odds-on favourites to win, with Ulster one-point favourites with most bookmakers when you split hairs.
The Exeter side that turfed Munster out of the Challenge Cup at the last-16 stage may well have been favoured to beat Ulster in the home side’s current guise but, much like the northern province, the Chiefs suffered a dip in form in April.
A previously miserly defence — the bedrock upon which their resurgence this season has been built — has shipped 44, 35 and 34 points in their last three games against Benetton (W), Northampton (L) and Gloucester (L) respectively.
Last weekend’s defeat at Kingsholm was especially eye-catching: it was just Gloucester’s third victory of an appalling league season, and Exeter weren’t far off full strength — albeit they’re owed the same allowance as Leinster in Treviso in that it would be understandable if they were already thinking ahead to Ravenhill.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is awarded the player of the match after his blistering display against Munster. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Much like Ulster themselves, Exeter have looked a cut above Challenge Cup level for most of this season. But while Richie Murphy openly admitted earlier in the campaign that Ulster would prioritise the URC over Europe’s second-tier competition, priorities are liable to shift once you reach the last four.
Exeter, still fourth in the Prem, will be conscious of the means with which West Country rivals Bath used the Challenge Cup as a springboard toward further success a couple of seasons ago, and they duly arrive in Belfast fully loaded.
Star England wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, who tore Munster a new one, has scored four tries in as many appearances since returning from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the Six Nations; his talent is nigh-on impossible to shackle, particularly with Italian international Stephen Varney — now one of the top scrum-halves in England — and the underrated Harvey Skinner in harness at half-back.
Replete with the signings of Australia internationals Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper, as well as Italy duo Varney and Andrea Zambonin, Exeter have re-emerged as a force after an abysmal 2024/25 campaign.
Exeter Chiefs' Harvey Skinner and Joseph Dweba celebrate victory over Munster. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Their scrum, impressive in large part all season, creaked away to Gloucester last weekend, just as it did away to basement club Newcastle on 27 March. Promising from Ulster’s point of view is that, Affidea Stadium, just like Kingsholm and Kingston Park, has an artificial surface, which can often favour the side more accustomed to scrummaging upon it; the only shame from an Irish perspective is that Ulster’s star Wallaby signing, Angus Bell, is unavailable to add further credence to that theory.
Given both sides’ attacking prowess and the rate at which they have shipped points over the last month, Ulster’s callow side against Munster last weekend notwithstanding, it’s impossible to imagine anything other than a barnburner in Belfast.
It’s also an impossible game to call, in which case the handful of points that must be attributed to a packed Ravenhill may ultimately prove decisive.
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Champions Cup love affair has reignited sleeping giant Toulon after turbulent season
IT’S 11 YEARS since Bryan Habana raced onto Ian Madigan’s searching pass and ripped the hearts from Leinster at the semi-final stage, with RC Toulon reaching — and winning — their third European Cup final on the spin.
LE RCT remain the only side in the competition to have claimed the trophy three times in a row, but that they haven’t met business-end veterans Leinster at any point in the years since illustrates the extent to which Toulon would soon afterwards disappear from the top table, their Galactico era — emblemised by world stars such as Habana, Jonny Wilkinson, Mathieu Bastareaud, Bakkies Botha, and Matt Giteau — reaching its conclusion as colourful comic-book tycoon Mourad Boudjellal sold his majority share in his local club.
Indeed, this decade, Toulon have been more so a Challenge Cup outfit, reaching finals in 2020 and 2022, and lifting the trophy in 2023 — the club’s first piece of silverware since they lifted their third Champions Cup eight years prior.
They returned to the Champions Cup last season after finishing only seventh in the Top 14 in 2022/23 (they would have qualified via their Challenge Cup success in any case). Hard-fought early pool victories away to the Stormers and at home to Glasgow rekindled the old flame: Toulon later scored 72 points to Saracens’ 42 in a memorable last-16 encounter before pushing reigning champions and traditional rivals Toulouse to the brink in a shuddering home quarter-final, ultimately falling three points short at Stade Mayol.
Pierre Mignoni’s Toulon have this season prioritised the Champions Cup almost to the same extent as they have the Top 14, but perhaps to their detriment domestically, where they currently sit eighth.
They enter this afternoon’s semi-final with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in season-best form, albeit it’s a small sample size. Their campaign overall has been turbulent to the point that head coach Mignoni stepped away for a month following a 34-14 home loss to Clermont on Valentine’s Day.
“My body gave out on me,” Mignoni explained upon his return in March. “I experienced what you might call a breakdown, a work overload. I felt it coming on, but you always have this feeling of being a superhuman. You’re always taking care of others and not much of yourself.”
Their initial results on this side of Mignoni’s sabbatical would have done little for their coach’s wellbeing: Les Rouge et Noirs were thumped at home by Stade Francais and, a week later, seen off emphatically by second-from-bottom Perpignan.
It was once again the Champions Cup that rejuvenated Toulon. A dramatic one-point home victory over the URC’s then-second-placed side, the Stormers, in the last 16 was backed up by a major upset away to Champions Cup second seeds Glasgow at the quarter-final stage.
Since then, Toulon have turned a corner in the Top 14, obliterating Montauban on the road before producing arguably their most complete performance of the season to annihilate Bayonne at home this day last week.
The Glasgow performance in the Champions Cup last eight, though, was the exemplification of Toulon in late 2025/26: it was mostly a feat of belligerence and grit, the kind of effort often distilled into ‘no-talent moments’ or non-negotiables, and yet the type that is scarcely replicable week to week.
It was a game remembered for Ignacio Brex’s wonder-try but it was won mostly the old-fashioned way, in the tight five, an area of the field in which Toulon — at least when at full complement or near enough, as they will be today — are comparable to any other side in the Top 14.
Whereas their squad overall may lack the name-brand recognition of yesteryear to the passive observer, Toulon’s front five — Jean-Baptiste Gros, Teddy Baubigny, Kyle Sinckler; Corentin Mézou and skipper David Ribbans — are incredibly proficient around the fringes on both sides of the ball and they excel in the set piece.
Especially relevant to Leinster are the returns of Andrew Porter and James Ryan, without whom their own front row and second row would arguably be second best on paper to their opposing unit at the Aviva Stadium.
Toulon have scored a third of their Champions Cup tries off scrums, which is by far the highest ratio in Europe’s top tier this season. They tend to use their powerful scrum not as a penalty-generating machine but as a weapon with which to take the legs of their opposing numbers and establish the optimal platform from which the likes of Ben White, Tomás Albornoz and Nacho Brex — three top-class Test players — can strike.
Equally, their attacking maul is among the best in France, where that particular aspect of the game is a huge point of emphasis in comparison to the URC or the English Premiership. Leinster’s defensive maul, in contrast, directly cost them two scores in last Saturday’s defeat to Benetton, and indirectly cost them another. The returns to action of Porter and Ryan in particular are bound to shore up their efforts at the Aviva, but Toulon will be hellbent on causing damage in those exchanges; and much like the scrum, being on the wrong end of maul dominance is physically exhausting for forwards to a degree that is not sufficiently acknowledged in general rugby discourse.
Their true game-breaker in the backline, meanwhile, is undoubtedly right wing Gael Dréan, who lines out opposite Rieko Ioane today. Given both sides’ penchant for keep-ball rugby, it’s unlikely to be a particularly kick-intensive game, which may have informed Leo Cullen’s selection of Ioane, who has struggled under the high ball during otherwise improved performances in recent weeks. But Dréan is a deadly dangerous threat to any opposing players once he receives ball in hand. The 25-year-old, who earned his first France cap during their Six Nations victory over Italy in February, has scored 16 tries in 20 starts across all competitions this season, including seven in the Champions Cup in which he’s the joint top try-scorer.
The mission to stop Dréan begins with smothering the likes of fullback Melvyn Jaminet or offloader-in-chief Charles Ollivon, which begs the question as to how Leinster will choose to defend across the board in this semi-final.
Whereas in their two recent Champions Cup knockout games, Leinster’s defence has more closely resembled Ireland’s bend-but-don’t-break approach under Simon Easterby than the typical Jacques Nienaber blitz, they reverted to a more archetypal Nienaber defensive model in Treviso last weekend and were routinely caught on the edges in what was surely a tactical dress rehearsal for today’s encounter.
The result against Benetton can be virtually discarded in that it’s only natural that the majority of Leinster’s players would have had their eye on today’s far more significant game against Toulon. But the inroads carved by the likes of Jacob Umaga, Paolo Odogwu and Ignacio Mendy will still have made for an interesting week for the Leinster coaching staff as they map out a route to victory in this European semi-final against more formidable opposition.
Toulon will be bang up for this game in which they have nothing to lose, really, and only a seismic result to gain. And while the reality remains that Leinster at their best are simply a better team than Toulon in most areas, they may well need their best — or close enough to it — in order to banish the demons from the Northampton defeat last season and book their spot in Bilbao.
***
Ulster’s Challenge Cup semi-final against Exeter is, from this juncture, an altogether more difficult game to call: Richie Murphy’s hosts and Rob Baxter’s visitors are each odds-on favourites to win, with Ulster one-point favourites with most bookmakers when you split hairs.
The Exeter side that turfed Munster out of the Challenge Cup at the last-16 stage may well have been favoured to beat Ulster in the home side’s current guise but, much like the northern province, the Chiefs suffered a dip in form in April.
A previously miserly defence — the bedrock upon which their resurgence this season has been built — has shipped 44, 35 and 34 points in their last three games against Benetton (W), Northampton (L) and Gloucester (L) respectively.
Last weekend’s defeat at Kingsholm was especially eye-catching: it was just Gloucester’s third victory of an appalling league season, and Exeter weren’t far off full strength — albeit they’re owed the same allowance as Leinster in Treviso in that it would be understandable if they were already thinking ahead to Ravenhill.
Much like Ulster themselves, Exeter have looked a cut above Challenge Cup level for most of this season. But while Richie Murphy openly admitted earlier in the campaign that Ulster would prioritise the URC over Europe’s second-tier competition, priorities are liable to shift once you reach the last four.
Exeter, still fourth in the Prem, will be conscious of the means with which West Country rivals Bath used the Challenge Cup as a springboard toward further success a couple of seasons ago, and they duly arrive in Belfast fully loaded.
Star England wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, who tore Munster a new one, has scored four tries in as many appearances since returning from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the Six Nations; his talent is nigh-on impossible to shackle, particularly with Italian international Stephen Varney — now one of the top scrum-halves in England — and the underrated Harvey Skinner in harness at half-back.
Replete with the signings of Australia internationals Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper, as well as Italy duo Varney and Andrea Zambonin, Exeter have re-emerged as a force after an abysmal 2024/25 campaign.
Their scrum, impressive in large part all season, creaked away to Gloucester last weekend, just as it did away to basement club Newcastle on 27 March. Promising from Ulster’s point of view is that, Affidea Stadium, just like Kingsholm and Kingston Park, has an artificial surface, which can often favour the side more accustomed to scrummaging upon it; the only shame from an Irish perspective is that Ulster’s star Wallaby signing, Angus Bell, is unavailable to add further credence to that theory.
Given both sides’ attacking prowess and the rate at which they have shipped points over the last month, Ulster’s callow side against Munster last weekend notwithstanding, it’s impossible to imagine anything other than a barnburner in Belfast.
It’s also an impossible game to call, in which case the handful of points that must be attributed to a packed Ravenhill may ultimately prove decisive.
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