European Cup semi-final/Leicester -19 Toulouse - 27: The Gallic shift in the balance of European power and perhaps, come the 2007 World Cup, globally as well, appears even more palpable now. As was the case two years ago, there will be an all-French final to the Heineken European Cup in Murrayfield on May 22nd and once again their standard-bearers, Toulouse, will be in the decider.
The French aristocrats will, indeed, be contesting their third successive final after taking pretty much everything Leicester could throw at them - save for a few cases of whitewash fever - to silence the vast majority of a 32,000 crowd with the stealthiest of semi-final victories.
Ultimately fortune favoured the brave, for Toulouse were true to their heritage and themselves. They may have ridden their luck, they may have seen Leicester squander gilt-edged try-scoring chances when in the ascendancy for much of the first half, but they outscored the English kingpins by three tries to one - which they only conceded deep into injury-time.
Resilient and resourceful without ever being on top up front, they were inspired to a large degree from the back by the counter-attacking of their outside three, Vincent Clerc, ultra-cool Cedric Heymans with his pinpoint left peg, and most daringly of all Clement Poitrenaud.
The villain of last year's dramatic final defeat has long since put that behind him, and, like his team-mates, is now 80 minutes away from atoning in full by becoming the first club to win the competition three times. Often living off scraps, no-one turns crumbs into a feast quite like the French and, tellingly, all three of their tries came from Leicester kicks.
There was a thread of Irish interest running throughout the game. Three years on from being deemed an impact replacement by Matt Williams at Leinster (since when he's been surplus to Irish requirements) here Trevor Brennan was getting through his usual selfless donkey work for the full 80 minutes; hitting rucks and throwing his body into tackles unstintingly and decorating it all with one restart take and charge. And boy, how Toulouse needed every ounce of their resilience yesterday.
Geordan Murphy looked a class act, running dangerously when he had the ball, while his pace in defence saved at least one certain try, but around him too many misfired, not least the highly-rated Ollie Smith. Indeed, it was a bad day for many of Leicester's nine Lions, past and present, with Graham Rowntree and Lewis Moody going off with medial ligament injuries, and there will no fairytale ending for Martin Johnson.
Leicester had some justifiable complaints about forward passes in the first two Toulouse tries, especially the second, but Alain Rolland had a fine game. Under pressure from home crowd and team alike he was straight down the middle in masterfully controlling the game.
A classic, counter-attacking try inside the first three minutes for Toulouse merely added to the sense that something special was about to unfold. As it transpired, Toulouse would need that early buffer in spending the remainder of the half on the back foot.
Never kick to the French and Toulouse, the most French of their three semi-finalists, were true to their heritage in running back an Ellis box kick from their own half. Vincent Clerc gathered and, via Poitrenaud, two passes later the ball was transferred to the other wing where Heymans made the crucial ground in outflanking Leicester's poor line of chasers to feed Florian Fritz. Finau Maka was up in support to take the scoring offload inside and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde converted.
Even brief chants of "Toulous-ain" could be heard from the pockets of visiting supporters. This was not part of the Leicester script. But, in their own trademark fashion, they set about writing their own. Toulouse are overly dependant on flanker Jean Bouilhou at lineout time and his loss after nine minutes with a wrist injury looked pivotal.
Leicester attacked Toulouse's next throw to force a turnover which led to the first of Andy Goode's three first-half penalties, although he missed a fourth with the last kick of the period after intense scrum pressure. Toulouse lost another couple of throws and the ball they had was exclusively from the front and hard-earned. Leicester also had the better of the physical collisions, but knock-ons by Smith and Darren Morris (who thus blew a five-on-one overlap) somehow contrived to leave Toulouse 10-9 ahead at the break.
Guy Noves won the interval duel, his team coming out with renewed purpose and belief. Ten minutes in Poitrenaud ended another bout of aerial ping-pong, Clerc providing the link for the influential Yannick Jauzion to release the nippy Elissalde (arguably the true man-of-the-match) for a try from half-way, even if the pass looked forward.
Austin Healey's try-saving tackle on Poitrenaud and an exchange of penalties left the game in the balance until Gareth Thomas ran back a poor Healey box kick for Iisitolo Maka's transfer to give Frederic Michalak a free run to the line.
When Daryl Gibson was held up short of the line after Murphy had created the space out side, Tom Varndell plundered a consolation try. But ultimately, it was something of a bloodless coup.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: F Maka try, Elissalde con 7-0; 10: Goode pen 7-3; 13: Elissalde pen 10-3; 26: Goode pen 10-6; 34: Goode pen 10-9; (half-time 10-9); 50: Elissalde try and con 17-9; 60: Goode pen 17-12; 64: Elissalde pen 20-12; 74: Michalak try, Elissalde con 27-12; 84: Varndell try, Goode con 27-19.
LEICESTER: G Murphy; L Lloyd, O Smith, D Gibson, A Healey; A Goode, H Ellis; G Rowntree, G Chuter, J White, M Johnson (capt), L Deacon, L Moody, N Back, H Tuilagi. Replacements: D Morris for Rowntree (20 mins), B Kay for Moody (half-time), W Johnson for Tuilagi, S Bemand for Ellis (both 69 mins), T Varndell for Lloyd (75 mins).
TOULOUSE: C Poitrenaud; V Clerc, Y Jauzion, F Fritz, C Heymans; F Michalak (capt), J-B Elissalde; J-B Poux, W Servat, O Hassan, R Millochlusky, T Brennan, F Maka, J Bouilhou, G Lamboley. Replacements: I Maka for Bouilhou (9 mins), Y Bru for Servat (44 mins), D Human for Poux (55 mins), G Thomas for Poitrenaud (69 mins), C Labit for F Maka (72 mins), B Baby for Jauzion (77 mins).
Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).
