Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Analysisdecisions What happened in those chaotic final five minutes in Dublin? Northampton came out on the right side of this game within a game. 8.00pm, 4 May 2025 Share options WITH JUST UNDER five minutes of the Champions Cup semi-final remaining, Leinster are awarded a penalty in the Northampton 22. They face a decision. Northampton lead 37-34. The Saints are down to 14 players following a yellow card for back row Josh Kemeny. The penalty is on the right-hand-side 15-metre line so it’s not a gimme three points but it’s kickable. Sam Prendergast is still at out-half, with Ross Byrne remaining on the bench. Prendergast has successfully kicked four from six attempts in the game. So the decision is this – posts or corner? Replacement back row Jack Conan has taken over as Leinster captain after a head injury for starting skipper Caelan Doris and he initially looks to the sideline for instruction. “What do we want?” asks Conan as he cups his ears, signalling for a call from the coaching box. “What do we want?” he shouts again, throwing his hands out in apparent confusion, which suggests there is no call from the touchline. As Conan is doing that, replacement hooker Rónan Kelleher has a quick chat with lineout caller RG Snyman and sub lock Ryan Baird, the other two key figures in the set-piece. They’re preparing for the lineout and maul if the call is to go to the corner. Conan turns to his team-mates, with Prendergast and replacement centre Jordie Barrett clearly prominent in the discussion. It’s unclear who but we can hear someone saying, “Corner,” and there seems to be collective agreement. Very often, a directive comes from the coaching box in these instances. That explains Conan’s apparent confusion at the lack of a message in this case. Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said post-match that he and the rest of the coaching staff were happy to leave this one to the players. “It’s important, the players have a feel on the field and they’re all-in there,” said Cullen. ” “They backed their bravery to go and win the game. It doesn’t come off, but everyone is a genius in hindsight. “In the moments, these guys fancied it, and I’d fancy them 100%.” Leinster had scored a maul try 15 minutes earlier in the same right corner and that must have played into their decision. However, Saints had generally defended the maul very well in this game, with some big wins in that area. We’ll never know what would have happened next if Leinster had gone for the post and Prendergast had successfully made it 37-37. There might have been last-gasp drama in the closing four minutes, or we could have had 20 minutes of extra time. Whatever about the decision, Leinster’s maul effort was rejected by Saints. It’s worth noting that with Kemeny in the sin bin, the Saints coaches decided to sacrifice a back by bringing back row Angus Scott-Young on for wing Tom Litchfield, meaning they had eight forwards to deal with the maul attack. That obviously left them short in the backline but was very helpful here. Leinster go with a 6+1 lineout, which suggests their intention to maul. Saints decide to stay on the ground, allowing Snyman to win the ball uncontested. Staying down allows Saints to prioritise their maul defence and they do an excellent job. The four players in the middle of their lineout – Tom Lockett, Tom West, Alex Coles, and Angus Scott-Young – are pre-bound like a four-man front row, ready to drive into Leinster as soon as Snyman lands. We can see that defensive receiver Juarno Augustus [highlighted with the spotlight above] has moved up to lend his power behind that quartet. The two players at either end of the lineout – Henry Pollock and Elliot Millar-Mills – are initially tasked with standing off and containing any maul break plays to either side. At the moment above, Saints have already won the battle as they time their drive to split-second perfection, surging into Leinster just as Snyman lands. As Northampton get momentum, hooker Curtis Langdown nudges Millar-Mills forward into the maul, taking his slot on the edge of the maul in the shortside. Pollock briefly lands some weight too, but the damage has been done by the initial quintet who meet Leinster on landing. Their body height is ideally low, they’re tightly connected, and their timing is sublime. Joe McCarthy and Baird, the two lifters on Snyman, get no chance to brace strongly at the front of Leinster’s maul and the home side end up being very upright. Scott-Young does bind onto McCarthy’s leg and appears to very briefly lift it, which is illegal, but it’s done subtly enough and doesn’t catch referee Pierre Brousset’s attention. Northampton would have won this battle anyway given the quality of their defensive set-up. It’s a thunderous effort in maul defence from Northampton. Leinster have to play away, having lost more than five metres. Jordie Barrett carries well before McCarthy powers around the corner to get on the ball. Advertisement McCarthy beats two tackle attempts and Leinster are suddenly back into a promising scenario as Pollock drags him to ground. But Northampton get a turnover at this breakdown, one Leinster were aggrieved about. Pollock stays on his feet after the tackle and immediately looks to jackal for a turnover. Pollock goes straight off his feet as he jackals. But he bounces up in the next split seconds as he scoops the ball back towards his team-mates, taking out van der Flier in the process. That leaves the ball exposed for lock Coles to jackal and make the poach. Referee Brousset is close to the breakdown but he doesn’t feel that Pollock has illegally played the ball after initially going off his feet. Northampton get the benefit of the decision and clear the ball into touch. It would have been interesting to see what Leinster would have done had they been awarded the penalty here. Given how central a position it was, and the maul miss, they surely would have taken the three. Pollock might even have been sin binned if it was deemed a penalty. As it is, Leinster send on Ross Byrne in place of Prendergast and with just over three minutes, they launch from a lineout on the Northampton 10-metre line. A slick catch-pass from Barrett off James Lowe’s pass sends Ryan Baird surging up the left on fourth phase. There’s a brief window for Baird to pass or offload back inside to Jamison Gibson-Park. There is no more Saints cover in behind. Gibson-Park’s pace would undoubtedly take him clear to score. But Baird doesn’t glance infield until it’s too late and the window is shut. Another shortside sortie brings further gains for Leinster on the left as Barrett and Baird send Lowe into space. The Leinster forwards take over with a series of carries off Gibson-Park. There is one chance for Leinster to flash the ball wide when the 14-man Saints look short on numbers. Highlighted in red above are Conan and right wing Tommy O’Brien holding width. It’s difficult to tell from this shot but O’Brien has his hand up signalling for the ball to be moved out to the edge. Leinster do play out the back as Baird sweeps the ball to Byrne, who skips Garry Ringrose to Barrett. But with Saints working hard to limit Leinster’s time on the ball, Barrett decides to carry. In the moment below, fullback James Ramm is the last defender on the edge for Saints. Tommy Freeman is covering across in the backfield out of shot, but Leinster obviously have Conan and O’Brien both wide on the right. There would be risk in throwing a flat pass here, with Ramm possibly picking the ball off, while a floated bridge pass would give Saints more time to recover and chase out. Barrett decides to hold onto the ball and the window closes again. Leinster go back to their direct ball-carrying for another six phases until a Snyman offload suddenly de-structures the game. Gibson-Park takes the offload and swings back to his left to find Lowe, who does superb work to tie in both Langdon and Tom James, who he even manages to trip as the Northampton man turns back out when Lowe passes. That leaves van der Flier with a one-on-one against Freeman, which he powers into. Chaos ensues. Firstly, Freeman does well to cling onto van der Flier’s right arm after being bumped off by the Leinster back row. That probably prevents van der Flier from finishing. It also buys time for second row Coles to get across with a big effort after 79 minutes of exhausting action. Coles slides in and initially denies van der Flier a chance to reach out and finish with that lung-busting effort. Of course, Coles’ second action in ripping he ball away from van der Flier is illegal and he ends up being sin-binned for that. The ball is now loose and comes forward off Coles’ hand and off his left knee before bouncing back the other way off Leinster out-half Byrne’s right knee. There’s a final touch off the right boot of the retreating James and the ball ends up as close to the left corner as is possible. Byrne reaches out and looks to ground it on the tryline. Brousset goes to a formal review with TMO Tual Trainini and says, “On-field decision, no try, knock-on blue, but we want to check if there is a player on the ground ripping the ball.” He adds, “And then, we will look if there is a grounding by blue or the ball is in touch.” After a few replays, Brousset confirms the illegal play by Coles: “The green player is assist tackler, never releases. So I’ve got an infringement by five.” He then assesses the possible grounding by Byrne. Trainini comes in: “Pierre, we have an image of the ball in touch against the base of the post.” The TMO feels that this rules out a Leinster try due to Law 21.15: “If the ball or ball-carrier touches a corner flag or corner flag post without otherwise being in touch or touch-in-goal, play continues unless the ball is grounded against the post.” Brousset decides he has seen enough and begins to run through his decision. “OK, we’ve got three things,” he begins. “First, an infringement by five green, ripping the ball when he’s assist tackler. That is cynical.” Trainini interjects and asks in French, “Is that in the act of scoring and prevents a potential try?” “No,” answers Brousset, “because he [van der Flier] was short and he cannot move forward. For me, it would be just cynical so I will give a yellow card against five. “Then we’ve got a knock-on [by Coles] and the ball touches the base, so no try.” Brousset calls in the captains to explain. “Number five is involved as assist tackler, so it will be a yellow card against five. Then there is a knock-on and the ball touches the base of the post, so no try. Penalty for you [Leinster].” Conan nods as Leinster initially accept the decision. Coles is binned and there is a pause as Kemeny returns from the sin bin, while Leinster replace the injured O’Brien with Prendergast. Leinster have already decided to tap the penalty, which is out on the left-hand side five-metre line, meaning a very difficult shot at goal. Byrne is an excellent place-kicker with a record of nailing difficult shots under pressure, but taking on the shot comes with the obvious risk of missing and the game being over. Leinster back themselves to score a winning try. At the point above, Leinster seem to be simply discussing exactly which five-metre tap play they will use. Before play resumes, Conan approaches Brousset and asks about the Coles incident again, “Was that not in the act of scoring?” “No, it’s not in the act of scoring because he is short and can’t move forward again,” replies Brousset. It’s a fair query from Conan, even if it comes a bit late. Van der Flier is very close to the tryline when Coles strips the ball away illegally, certainly close enough to reach out and dot the ball down. Ball carriers are entitled to do that as long as they don’t propel themselves forward along the ground having already been tackled. But Brousset clearly believes that van der Flier would have had to thrust himself forward in order to get the ball under or beyond Coles to finish. He sticks by his decision. Conan moves away but calls his forwards in one last time, seemingly to discuss their next play. The play they opt for is the same one Leinster used for Doris’ try earlier in the second half. We see that try below. Just watch how the Leinster deception catches Augustus [in the black scrum cap] off guard. He bites in towards the dummy pod of forwards off van der Flier and can’t react as the Leinster openside then skips a pass wider to Doris, who blasts through Pollock with a double latch to score. The second attempt from Leinster is different because it’s so close to the left touchline. In the instance above, Leinster have two backs to the left of the ball in Robbie Henshaw and Lowe, while Jamison Gibson-Park also darts there. That all holds two of the Saints forwards on that side. But second time around, there’s not as much space to the left of the ball and only Lowe is on that side. Saints wing Freeman can mark Lowe as the Saints forwards worry solely about the Leinster forwards. So the Saints forwards, who no doubt recognise the set-up, are slightly wider on the right-hand side of the ball this time around. That in turn means Conan, in the Doris role now, is running into a more solid defensive line. He is met by prop Millar-Mills and back row Scott-Young, with Augustus joining from outside them. Conan is stripped of the ball here. It’s Augustus who rips it from his grasp. Brousset has a good view and is happy that the strip was completed before Conan gets a knee to ground. “Ripped in the air,” calls Brousset, repeating those words as Leinster appeal for a penalty. Augustus presents the ball back on Saints’ side and though there is a messy ruck as bodies pile in desperately, Northampton have possession. 20 seconds remain. Saints carry short twice more through Pollock and West before out-half Fin Smith launches the ball into the stand. Game over. Five minutes after this gesture by Leinster skipper Conan, his counterpart Fraser Dingwall does the same. 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