'Leinster could do a job this weekend' - Coughlan thinks fatigue could catch up on Toulouse

Toulouse could struggle with fatigue in this Saturday's Heineken Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster, according to Toulon coach James Coughlan.

The former Munster number 8 is currently defence coach at Toulon, who have their own Challenge Cup semi-final against Saracens this weekend.

Five-time champions Toulouse needed 100 minutes of rugby, as well as a place-kicking competition to get past Munster in a thrilling quarter-final last Saturday, and will have to return to the Aviva Stadium again this weekend, this time to face Leo Cullen's side.

But Coughlan, whose Toulon side earned a 19-15 win against the champions just a few weeks ago in the Top 14, believes the quarter-final win may have taken too much out of the Toulouse tank.

"I think Leinster could do a job this weekend, considering the amount of effort that Toulouse have had to put into the last couple of weeks," Coughlan told RTÉ's Game On.

"I think Leinster could utilise that to their favour this weekend.

"It's basically France against Ireland this weekend. We played Toulouse a couple of weeks ago and were lucky to get out the right side of the result, but they had to do squad rotation because guys have been playing all year.

"I thought Munster were brilliant, I thought they did as much as they could do. It's just a horrible way for them to go out, they worked their socks off, every one of them, and the bench were brilliant as well. It was just one of those days, after 100 minutes of rugby it's hard to kick those penalties at the end of the game. The three kickers Toulouse had are three of the best in the world."

While back-to-back trips to the Aviva would appear to be daunting for Toulouse, Ugo Mola's side have an incredible record in Ireland in recent seasons,