'Too strong, too smart' - Leinster can beat Toulouse and advance to Champions Cup final

Donal Lenihan believes that Leinster will be "too strong, too smart and too experienced" for Toulouse when the two sides meet at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

A place in this season's Champions Cup final awaits the winner of this mouth-watering encounter at the Lansdowne Road arena with the French side looking to complete a remarkably triple crown, of sorts, against Leo Cullen’s side.

The five-time champions knocked Ulster out of the tournament in the round of 16 before finally edging past Munster last weekend in the quarter-finals following a kicking competition.

And this week, they return to Dublin looking for the third Irish scalp in a row as they face Leinster, with either Racing 92 or La Rochelle waiting in the final, which is set to take place at the Stade Orange Velodrome in Marseille on 28 May.

But it has been far from easy for the reigning champions, who defeated La Rochelle in last season’s decider, as they had to come from behind to beat Ulster over two legs, while they could not be separated with Munster over 100 minutes.

"Toulouse are struggling by their standards, however, they are still finding a way to win," said former Ireland captain Lenihan, speaking on Morning Ireland.

"They lost in Toulouse in the first game of the round of 16 and had a player sent off inside the first ten minutes, but they managed to fight back and narrow the gap to six points for the return game in Ulster, and won that game.

"Last weekend was incredible with 40,000 Munster supporters (at the Aviva), but Toulouse were incredible again, despite being short of their best, they just found a way to prevail at the end and that’s what they do, and it is something that Leinster will be conscious of."

Lenihan feels that the breakdown will be key