Another year, another Champions Cup semi-final for Leinster, and a campaign that has followed a near identical path to the last.Just as they did a year ago, they made their way through the pool stage in cold-blooded fashion, and just as they did a year ago they eased through an Irish derby in the Round of 16 before proving too much for Leicester in the quarters.And just as they did last year, they welcome five-time champions Toulouse to the Aviva Stadium in the semi-final.
If they come out on top, they might very well have a rematch with Ronan O'Gara and La Rochelle in the decider.History has repeated itself quite a bit for Leo Cullen's side this season, but it's hard to see this semi-final playing out in similar fashion to last season's 40-17 thrashing of Toulouse.Just seven days previously the French champions had gone through a quarter-final against Munster that was as draining mentally as it was physically, needing extra-time and a place-kicking competition to secure a return trip to Dublin the following week.Leinster were scorching under the sun in Dublin for that semi-final last May, while Toulouse looked jaded and were never really in the game.Both sides have had ideal preparation.While Leinster were in South Africa for the last two rounds of URC, their frontline stars stayed back in Dublin and have had more than two weeks to prepare specifically for the Antoine Dupont and co, while Toulouse also sat their first-teamers for last week's Top14 defeat to Stade Francais.Most notably, that semi-final last year was dictated by the class of Johnny Sexton, who set up three tries, converted three tries and kicked another three penalties in one of his greatest performances in blue.