Leinster, who have won the European Champions Cup four times, are the last Irish province left in this season’s competition, but once again they face a French club in the semi-final when Toulon visit the Aviva on Saturday. Since their last Champions Cup win in 2018 Leinster have fallen to French clubs at the ultimate and penultimate hurdle a few times.
The province should be very familiar with the Aviva Stadium by now as they have made it their temporary home while the RDS gets an upgrade. While there are always full houses at the Aviva for the Six Nations game, there has been a drop of attendance for Leinster’s European games, which are nothing like they were in the halcyon days of Leinster Rugby and the attendance for the quarter-final win over Sale two weeks back was only 18,839.
The Toulon game will be Leinster’s 23rd home knockout tie covering Europe and the URC since crowds returned in 2021. In 2024, the province worked with tournament organizers the EPCR to fill Croke Park for their semi-final against Northampton Saints. The following season, they did it again, making €1.7m when they hosted Munster at GAA headquarters. This season, they brought that marquee derby back to the same venue and sold 51,859 tickets.
So far this season, Leinster’s biggest attendance at the Aviva Stadium was the pool game against La Rochelle, which attracted 38,044 through the turnstiles. Various reasons have been cited for the lack of interest in the Champions Cup — ticket prices, no certainty about the next round or venues for games, hotel prices for foreign visitors to Dublin and no coverage of rugby games on free to air stations.
Harry Byrne, who returned to Leinster from Bristol Bears, has now taken over the number 10 jersey from Sam Prendergast and has committed his future to Leinster after signing a new contract last week. With 109 points, Byrne is Leinster’s top scorer so far this season. It’s tough on Prendergast who started the season as Ireland’s first choice out-half, only to lose out to Jack Crowley at international level, then he was dropped by Leinster. A few weeks back against Edinburgh Leinster coach Leo Cullen named a team with 14 Irish internationals and New Zealander Rieko Ioane. Irish captain Caelan Doris returned to the Leinster team last weekend against Benetton as did Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan. On Saturday the province will be without Max Deegan, who started last year’s semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints, is suspended after his recent card against Ulster. There is no lack of talent in the Leinster camp, but the men in blue don’t always deliver on the big day.
In the other semi-final also on Saturday, Bordeaux-Begles have home advantage against Bath Rugby and the final is fixed for Bilbao on May 23.
