With only 43 per cent possession, although they missed 37 tackles, Leinster executed a whopping 228 against an Ulster side who threw everything at them. Ulster matched Leinster’s seven line breaks but scored two tries from 10 entries inside the 22, while Leinster scored three from eight. Confirmation of the planned cross-hemisphere final means there is only one spot out of 12 contenders following this ingeniously conceived sprint over five random games. “That cannot be nothing,” an irate Henderson responded to referee Mike Adamson after his ‘captain’s challenge’ was lost. “The captain’s challenge is proving challenging, I think it’s fair to say,” ventured a deadpan Cullen with either deliberate or unintended irony.

Source: The Irish Times May 17, 2021 04:52 UTC