FIRST THINGS FIRST. Leinster need a good restart from Jamison Gibson-Park.

With out-half Harry Byrne in the sin bin along with Andrew Porter, it was the Leinster scrum-half who took over the restart duties.

Gibson-Park’s first effort towards the end of the first half was a scrappy one that gave Toulon ample time to exit, but he had more time to think about this one at the beginning of the second half.

With four crucial minutes ahead before Porter’s return from his yellow card, Gibson-Park makes a far better connection with his second restart.

Gibson-Park manages to land the ball in the five-metre channel close to Toulon’s five-metre line. This immediately means Toulon are launching from close to their own tryline.

This is a tricky place to aim for, given the risk of kicking out on the full, although Leinster’s scrum dominance in this game provided a little reassurance.

Gibson-Park’s long restart finds number eight Mikheil Shioshvili, who has to backpedal to field the ball and definitely won’t kick back at Leinster.

The downside of kicking to Shioshvili is that it now requires a good tackle on one of Toulon’s strongest ball carriers.

Jack Conan and James Ryan oblige.

That’s the first part of Leinster’s plan nailed.

Gibson-Park’s fine restart has allowed them to make a tackle well inside the Toulon 22.

This is exactly where Leinster want Toulon. Firstly, it’s very far away from the Leinster tryline. And secondly, the Irish province have a strong sense that 15-man Toulon will try to run the ball against 13-man Leinster.

“We talked about, listen, Toulon will likely try to play out against us, which they did,” said Leinster boss Leo Cullen post-match.

“I thought guys managed some defensive situations well there.”

Toulon consider kicking out through scrum-half Ben White, but the call comes to run it. 

White throws a long pass to centre Nacho Brex, but the relatively slow pace of the recycle from Shioshvili’s carry means Leinster are well set defensively.

Leinster have lots to cover here, given their numerical disadvantage. As we see below, right wing Tommy O’Brien drops off the frontline and begins working into the backfield.

Out of shot, fullback Hugo Keenan is swinging from right to left in the backfield, while Gibson-Park is closing up to the left edge of the Leinster frontline to account for the run threat from Toulon.

So Leinster only really have 10 players in their frontline defence, yet they do not sit off in the slightest.

Josh van der Flier and Garry Ringrose are tasked with blitzing on the left edge of the Leinster defence, looking to shut down Toulon’s attempt to play out. They’re successful.

It’s an excellent bit of defending from van der Flier, who reads Brex’s pass out the back to Melvyn Jaminet and doesn’t hesitate in the slightest.

Van der Flier blitzes hard on Jaminet and spooks him, denying the Toulon fullback a chance to move the ball wider into space. Jaminet ducks back inside the initial ‘missed tackle’ from van der Flier.

Crucially, the defenders inside van der Flier – Joe McCarthy, Jerry Cahir, Caelan Doris, and Thomas Clarkson – have worked hard laterally to cover that space and Jaminet has nowhere to go.

Van der Flier tackles him without anyone else having to commit. The openside flanker then bounces straight back to his feet to ‘barge’ the breakdown.

Van der Flier is up against three arriving Toulon players and while he is never going to dominate that contest, he does shift them backwards slightly, adding a hint of delay to the Toulon recycle.

That helps in Leinster folding players to their right-hand side and getting more width in their defence there, which is crucial for the next phase.

Despite being shut down on their first attempt, Toulon still want to try and run the ball out from here.

Looked at purely as a numbers game, Toulon have lots more players on this side of the pitch.

And yet, Leinster are comfortable in managing the situation.

Some teams might have sat off here and on the phase before, but Leinster have a very aggressive defence under Jacques Nienaber.

We see it again in this instance as Jamie Osborne blitzes up outside Conan to dissuade a wide pass, while O’Brien closes up from the backfield to provide further discouragement.

And so, Toulon out-half Tomás Albornoz tucks the ball into his left arm and carries himself into the tackle of Conan and Osborne.

By now, Toulon have realised they’re playing with fire, even against 13 men, and White calls for the box kick set-up.

He gets a caterpillar of players in front of him to give him space, but the Toulon scrum-half then comes up with a poor exit attempt.

It’s instantly clear that the ball isn’t going to go close to the touchline and that it’s a very shallow kick that’s going to land on Toulon’s 22-metre line.

The shallowness of the kick isn’t ideal for Toulon, obviously, but it also presents a challenge for Leinster because fullback Keenan can’t come all the way forward from his deep position to claim the dropping ball.

But wing O’Brien does a superb job of making sure Leinster get possession.

O’Brien is backtracking initially as he presumes he will have to work further downfield, but he gets a good early read on the landing point of White’s miscued kick.

O’Brien is calm as he gives himself the best chance of winning what is going to be a somewhat awkward contest against the chasing Charles Ollivon, who is strong under high balls.

Once O’Brien is happy that he’s gone downfield enough, he pauses and stands still for a crucial second. This ensures that he doesn’t arrive into the contest too early, which often means players don’t get a maximal leap off the ground to compete.

O’Brien’s excellent timing here ensures he can take two long, explosive strides to leap off his left leg and get over Ollivon.

So while O’Brien explodes up to and through the landing point of the kick, Ollivon ends up underneath it too early, which means he has to jump vertically up to the ball without as much power.

Leinster have possession and now the other part of their half-time planning kicks into life – how to attack with 13 against 15.

It’s always going to be difficult to attack with much width when you’ve two players fewer, never mind the fact that Leinster are already at Toulon’s 22-metre line, which is always a marker for tightening things up even when at full complement. 

Furthermore, Leinster only have five backs on the pitch, with Cahir having come on temporarily for Rieko Ioane, so the Irish province could continue to contest scrums while Porter is in the bin. So the eight Leinster forwards were always going to have to step up.

It’s skipper Doris who makes the first carry after Keenan steps in as scrum-half, with Gibson-Park having to make his way over from the far side of the pitch.

Importantly, Doris makes an excellent carry to set the tone for Leinster’s attack.

The number eight uses his footwork to get well onto the outside shoulder of Toulon prop Kyle Sinckler, meaning he can’t connect powerfully into the tackle. 

Doris wins the gainline, with McCarthy delivering a dominant clearout on Toulon hooker Teddy Baubigny to ensure lightning-quick ball for Gibson-Park, who is now on the scene.

Dan Sheehan comes around the corner to carry before Leinster switch back into the shortside, with centre Garry Ringrose stepping into the decision-making and play-calling role that Byrne would usually occupy.

Ringrose swings from left to right and calls for play to come back in that direction.

When teams are numbers down, it makes sense to make extensive use of the ‘shortside,’ which is the side of the ruck closest to a touchline. It’s a more condensed space, meaning the opposition’s numerical advantage can’t have as much effect.

Here, James Ryan and then Ringrose himself carry in the shortside before Gibson-Park goes back infield for a Clarkson carry on the 15-metre line.

It’s a fine carry from Clarkson as he dips in underneath Baubigny and Junior Kpoku before driving this legs in contact to eke out a couple of metres.

At this stage, the wide view shows us how Leinster are outnumbered on the openside.

And so, they go back into the shortside again.

O’Brien carries off Gibson-Park, then Clarkson does the same after getting back to his feet.

The pattern continues as Doris makes another carry near the 15-metre line, fighting to try and win inches for his team after using footwork pre-contact.

Leinster again look to come back into the shortside next, but they throw a small bit of shape at Toulon this time.

Ryan runs a short line off Gibson-Park as the scrum-half picks and scoots, both of them interesting the fringe defenders, before Gibson-Park goes out the back to Ringrose.

With Ryan sitting Kpoku down briefly, getting a bump on him ahead of the ball, Leinster actually manage to create an overload in this narrow channel.

That allows Ringrose to dummy a pass to O’Brien and dart inside Toulon scrum-half White before Kpoku recovers to tackle him.

And just like that – after some excellent ball-carrying, quick recycling, and patient, disciplined use of the shortside – Leinster’s attack is rolling and they’re playing on top of Toulon.

Leinster sense that the time is finally right to get out of the shortside and look to stretch their attack, stressing Toulon’s work-rate.

Cahir carries on the 15-metre line next, then Leinster go much further infield as Gibson-Park finds Joe McCarthy.

McCarthy fights in contact after accelerating to Jean-Baptiste Gros’ outside, while Sheehan does a great job of ‘tackling the tackler’ by targeting David Ribbans, helping to ensure McCarthy wins this collision and keeps Leinster going forward.

We can see Clarkson working hard around the corner in the shot above and he then makes his third carry of the sequence after juggling Gibson-Park’s pass.

The ball has now been in play for two full minutes, which is a very long continuous passage in rugby, but Leinster’s work rate seems only to be heightening as they look to the width on the left.

They go from this situation as Clarkson is carrying…

… to this one as Gibson-Park delivers the ball on the very next phase.

Sheehan and Keenan work particularly hard to get width into the Leinster attack, with the hooker finding the fullback to threaten out on the left.

Toulon are scrambling now, with Leinster very much in the ascendancy, only a few metres out from the French side’s tryline.

Coming off the toucline, Doris makes his fourth carry of this attacking sequence and it’s another excellent one.

Doris accelerates outside Gros, dummies a pass to make Ribbans sit off slightly, then fights aggressively with his leg drive as Gros falls away from him and Ribbans wrestles. 

Leinster are dominating and Toulon are trying to play catch-up now.

As tends to be the case when defences are under pressure, their discipline slips.

Van der Flier comes on a brave line against the grain off Gibson-Park, and he’s hit high by Baubigny.

It will prove to be a yellow-card offence from Baubigny, but play rolls on in the meantime as Leinster look to play as quickly as they can.

Conan carries next, with Osborne aggressive in the clearout, then Clarkson makes his fourth surge at the Toulon defence with a pick-and-jam, supported by O’Brien and Doris.

McCarthy has an effort at finishing, then Sheehan lifts the ball to Ryan.

The second row is held up over the tryline, but Toulon are offside in trying to deny him.

After a passage lasting a whopping two minutes and 50 seconds, referee Luke Pearce blows his whistle for a Leinster penalty.

Pearce and TMO Ian Tempest review the high tackle on van der Flier, and Baubigny goes to the sin bin in a huge blow for Toulon after a passage in which they have been dominated by 13 men.

So now it becomes 13 v 14 after Baubigny is yellow-carded.

A discussion ensues among the Leinster players.

Byrne, their goal-kicker, is in the sin bin so a shot at goal is no gimme, but Leinster absolutely sense the chance to strike a further blow by going for the try and widening their lead.

Rather than kicking into touch and going to the lineout, they back themselves with a tap penalty play. 

Sheehan shapes to tap, but shifts late and instead receives a pass from Gibson-Park.

The Leinster hooker is carrying into Toulon’s two props, Gros and Sinckler, but shows his bellicosity to ride the initial hit and keep moving forward.

Conan does a great job of tackling the tackler here, driving in on Sinckler to help Sheehan win the contest.

A powerful first carry leaves Leinster set to strike.

Their initial plan is for van der Flier to fire a pass across the face of Doris and Clarkson to centre Osborne [blue below], who will have Keenan [pink] swinging out the back for a late shoulder ball.

But Toulon’s Ollivon gets a hand up to van der Flier’s pass, knocking it on.

The ball richochet bounces up perfectly for Ringrose, with Toulon expecting Osborne to get the ball, and the Leinster outside centre finishes smartly.

With 43:16 on the match clock, Ringrose scores a hard-earned Leinster try to reward their quality and physicality in the opening minutes of the second half.

Despite being in a tough spot with 13 players against Toulon’s 15 upon the restart, Leinster move into a 19-11 lead.

Ringrose can’t add the conversion, but Porter returns from the bin, with Byrne following soon after, and Leinster are well set to kick on and earn their place in the Champions Cup final.