Hugo Keenan — 6: Relatively quiet by his standards and despite an excellent display at Ravenhill last week, he understandably looked a few inches off the pace of a game of this magnitude after his lengthy injury absence.
Jordan Larmour — 7: After a non-descript first half, Larmour came alive in the second — on both sides of the ball. Leinster probably wouldn’t have made it to extra time without his try-saving hit on Mathis Lebel.
Robbie Henshaw — 8: Made 19 carries, almost all of them with ferocity, and gave Leinster significant front-foot ball — particularly in the first half. Beat six defenders, joint most in the game alongside Antoine Dupont.
Jamie Osborne — 6: Conceded a couple of penalties while isolated in the first half. Some nice touches in the second 40, and in extra-time, but didn’t especially trouble Toulouse.
James Lowe — 7: Made the most metres of anyone on the pitch and opened Toulouse up on a couple of occasions in the first half. Uncharacteristically loose in possession — albeit Gibson-Park wasn’t ideally positioned, either, for Lowe’s missed offload in the early throes. Yellow card was just, even if Lowe’s foul wasn’t consciously cynical so much as it was an inability to suppress his instinct to intervene.
Ross Byrne — 6: Some people will make Byrne a fall guy for simply not being a different kind of out-half. He performed relatively well within the parameters of his natural game, kicking well from the tee and creating a couple of opportunities with crossfield kicks. He is too tame with penalty kicks from hand and his restart out on the full after three Toulouse points was a bad error.
Jamison Gibson-Park — 7: He had two key tackles in this game which prevented Toulouse scores, including the early hit on his opposite number which saw Dupont’s studs scrape the paint before he popped back to Juan Cruz Mallía. He box-kicked very well but Toulouse suppressed his creative instincts by turning each defensive breakdown into something resembling a Jackson Pollock painting.
Andrew Porter — 9: An outrageous individual performance which deserved a European title. Won four scrum penalties, conceded one, and played 95-plus minutes in which he was also impactful in open play, on both sides of the ball.
Dan Sheehan — 8: Though he had a couple of lineouts go awry, this game was an exemplar of Sheehan’s all-round footballing ability. The rip from Dupont and 50-yard burst to within five metres of the Toulouse line forever be a bittersweet memory for Leinster fans.
Tadhg Furlong — 7: Bested Cyril Baille all day without reaping the penalty spoils, which were taken by his loosehead.
Joe McCarthy — 7: His all-encompassing shift didn’t fade even in extra-time. Toulouse marshalled him fairly well but McCarthy still had his eye-catching moments. He also had a couple of moments which caught the eye of referee Matthew Carley, but that will virtually always be the case with a player who operates exclusively on the edge.
Jason Jenkins — 6: Made a couple of good carries in the first half before being replaced at the break due to injury.
6. Ryan Baird — 7: Seemed perplexed to be taken off so early (59 minutes) and perhaps with good reason: he was having a fine game all-round. Called the lineout well in the first half and went on to earn on a key jackal penalty and make some bone-crunching impacts in attack and defence.
Will Connors — 6: Appeared to do what was asked of him and, while his contribution wasn’t game-changing, Leinster’s ability to spring Josh van der Flier from the bench absolutely was.
Caelan Doris (captain) — 7: Led through his full-blooded carries. Excellent at a messy breakdown and rib-crunching in defence. Would have been an 8/10 were it not for the extra-time penalty concession which, while absolutely attributable to fatigue, was simply too big an error to make within the context of the game at that hinge moment.
Replacements:
Rónan Kelleher (Sheehan 68′) — 6: Didn’t make quite the impact in the loose that he typically does off the bench.
Cian Healy (Porter 88′) — n/a:
Michael Ala’alatoa (Furlong 69′) — 7: Made one big carry and picked up at the breakdown where Furlong left off.
James Ryan (Jenkins HT) — 7: Took over the lineout, winning seven on Leinster ball. Leinster are a better team when he’s on the field, which is not to say Leo Cullen was wrong to use him from the bench — particularly in light of his recent injury.
Jack Conan (Baird 59′) — 6: Like Kelleher, wasn’t quite as influential off the bench as he typically tends to be.
Luke McGrath — n/a:
Ciarán Frawley (Byrne 69′) — 7: He’ll have nightmares about the missed drop-goal in the dying seconds of normal time but his overall impact was positive. Frawley is a very different player to Ross Byrne and those points of difference — particularly his urgency in the carry — made Leinster a more dangerous-looking team both down the stretch and into the afters.
Josh van der Flier (Connors 44′) — 8: Came off the bench like a man possessed and was a thorn in Toulouse’s side long before he scored the extra-time try that appeared to swing the game in Leinster’s favour. A brilliant performance by a brilliant player.
