Saracens beat Leinster to claim trophy after brutal Champion Cup final
Saracens were crowned kings of Europe for a third time in four seasons after fighting back to beat Heineken Champions Cup holders Leinster 20-10 at St James’ Park.
A brutal contest in front of a 52,000 crowd ended with Saracens becoming the most successful English club in European Cup history.
And they did it the hard way, wiping out a 10-point deficit through tries by wing Sean Maitland and number eight Billy Vunipola, plus two penalties and two conversions from Owen Farrell.
Prop Tadhg Furlong claimed a first-half touchdown for Leinster, while skipper Johnny Sexton added a conversion and penalty, but hopes of the Irishmen claiming a record fifth European title were dashed.
🤩 WHAT A FINAL 🤩
A tense, gripping, compelling #Heineken #ChampionsCup final with very little to separate the teams ✨
But we have our champion after 80 gruelling minutes ⏰
Well done to @Saracens, the BEST in Europe 👑
Summarise their performance in three words ✍️💬 pic.twitter.com/hvLL4v2uJM
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) May 11, 2019
Saracens proved unstoppable once Maitland touched down following a dominant Leinster opening, ultimately overcoming a yellow card for Maro Itoje to power home and taste Champions Cup glory once again.
England prop Mako Vunipola returned to action for Saracens after recovering from an ankle injury, but the twice European champions were without flanker Michael Rhodes because of a back problem.
It meant Itoje wearing Saracens’ number-six shirt, and Will Skelton partnering George Kruis in the second-row, while Leinster were unchanged following their semi-final victory over Toulouse last month.
Sexton kicked Leinster into a third-minute lead, but Saracens quickly stirred as their Wales international wing Liam Williams was twice involved in early action, making ground each time.
Billy Vunipola, who was booed most times he touched the ball during his team’s semi-final victory over Munster, again received jeers.
He was handed formal warnings from his club and the Rugby Football Union after he posted on social media that “man was made for woman to procreate that was the goal no?” and also liked a social media post from Australian player Israel Folau that stated “hell awaits” for homosexuals.
Saracens gave as good as they got during the opening quarter, but a promising attacking platform collapsed after skipper Brad Barritt was penalised for an illegal challenge at a ruck.
A poor clearance kick by Farrell then gave Leinster a chance to run from deep, and centre Garry Ringrose freed full-back Rob Kearney in space, but Saracens held out.
"What a quality outfit, deserved champions!"
Saracens have won it! 🏆
A third Champions Cup win and what a performance to get it done!
Fantastic scenes at full time in St James' Park.#ChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/cIGlWY1pjU
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) May 11, 2019
But they did so illegally, and Itoje was yellow-carded by referee Jerome Garces for a technical offence before Saracens replaced Mako Vunipola and his fellow prop Titi Lamositele with Richard Barrington and Vincent Koch.
And Leinster struck while Itoje was off as Furlong crashed over from close range after the Irish side opted for an attacking scrum rather than a penalty kick, and Sexton’s conversion made it 10-0.
Farrell opened Saracens’ account by landing a penalty just before the break, and then they hit Leinster by scoring a try on the stroke of half-time.
Patient build-up play by the forwards resulted in scrum-half Ben Spencer firing out a long pass to Farrell, who flicked the ball on and an unmarked Maitland finished off, with Farrell’s conversion making it 10-10 at the break.
There was no let-up in the third quarter, with both sides going close, and Garces went to the television match official to rule on whether a Saracens player had scored by touching the ball against the post.
No try was given, but Garces sin-binned Leinster flanker Scott Fardy, and Farrell kicked the resulting penalty to nudge Saracens ahead for the first time.
Itoje was then lucky to avoid another card for a challenge on Leinster wing James Lowe – Garces was content to award only a penalty – as the Irish side launched another spell of concerted pressure.
But back came Saracens, with Billy Vunipola smashing through four defenders for a crucial try 13 minutes from time that put his team in dreamland and left Leinster reeling.
Comments on RugbyPass
My heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
75 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
75 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to comments