Leinster 20-13 Toulouse: Leinster still hold a slim chance of reaching the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup after a hard fought win over Pool Six leaders Toulouse at the RDS this afternoon.
The French giants' 90th match in the tournament's history failed to go to plan for them as a try in each half from Ireland hopeful Luke Fitzgerald, allied to 10 points from Felipe Contepomi, kept Leinster in the pool picture.
Michael Cheika's men now sit three points behind Toulouse heading into round six and as well as needing a precious win away to Leicester Tigers, they must hope other results go their way to keep them in the hunt for the last eight.
Aiming for their eighth straight Heineken Cup home win, Leinster's early physicality and ambition was rewarded with a fifth-minute penalty success for Contepomi, who linked up at half-back with tournament debutant Chris Keane.
The Toulouse side, containing 14 internationals, struggled to settle and Contepomi was narrowly wide with a second penalty attempt after the visitors were pinged for pushing before the scrum feed.
A Valentin Courrent chip got Toulouse temporarily on the front foot but Leinster's lineout was managed solidly by Ireland hopeful Bernard Jackman and a furious break, initiated by Fitzgerald, got the hosts back in the danger zone.
They turned down a kickable penalty and with second row Gregory Lamboley seeing yellow for collapsing a lineout maul, Toulouse came under increased pressure.
Malcolm O'Kelly was just held up over the try line but Leinster tails were up when Fitzgerald scrambled over for a 32nd-minute touchdown.
The industrious Brian O'Driscoll, playing in his 50th Heineken Cup game, brilliantly tied in two defenders to open up the space for Contepomi to put Fitzgerald dashing over. The Argentinian star added the conversion yet a needless ruck infringement by Jackman allowed Courrent to close the gap to 10-3 in first half injury-time.
Stung into action, Toulouse looked to have turned the tables when they dominated the early part of the second half. A break by Florian Fritz really should have resulted in a try and Courrent was just off target with a penalty kick.
The Toulouse fly-half found his range in the 54th-minute and with replacement Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Vincent Clerc beginning to find space, Leinster were creaking somewhat.
Keane had a clearance kick charged down by Yannick Nyanga but Contepomi rescued the situation and the Puma then had a hand in the try which gave the Irishmen some much-needed breathing space.
He held the ball up for O'Driscoll to charge forward and scatter the Toulouse defence and a lovely skip pass put Fitzgerald stepping past Cedric Heymans and in at the corner.
That seven-pointer was almost followed by another as Leinster began to find their rhythm again. Prop Stan Wright was frustratingly called back for a forward pass and any notions of a bonus point win for the men in blue were quickly put to bed.
Toulouse edged themselves back into the contest on 70 minutes when replacement Romain Millo-Chlusky barged forward and the ball was worked out for Heymans to put the supporting Yves Donguy thundering over.
Despite Courrent's conversion closing the difference to 17-13, Leinster failed to panic and Contepomi made the game safe by landing an injury-time drop goal.
