Toulouse 36-28 Harlequins: Hosts hold on to advance to Champions Cup Final

Record five-time winners Toulouse held off Harlequins' second-half comeback to win a thrilling home Champions Cup semi-final 38-26 on Sunday, securing a meeting with Leinster in the final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 25.

Scrumhalf Antoine Dupont scored two tries as the French team scored six times in total, five of them in a dominant first half that gave them a 31-12 lead at halftime.

Harlequins were a different team in the second period, scoring through flyhalf Marcus Smith, flanker Will Evans, wing Cadan Murley, and fullback Tyrone Green to close the gap to five points.

Toulouse were playing their 16th semi-final and Harlequins their first, and that experience helped them win the game when visiting hooker Jack Walker received a yellow card, giving them the impetus to pull away in the final stages.

Wings Matthis Lebel and Juan Cruz Mallia, hooker Peato Mauvaka, and lock Thibaud Flament all scored tries for the hosts.

In the early stages, the teams traded tries, with Lebel cantering over in the corner and Mauvaka scoring for the home team, and Smith and Evans responding for the visitors.

But Toulouse soon took control, and when Harlequins flanker Chandler Cunningham-South fumbled a loose pass from scrumhalf Danny Care metres from his line, Flament scored the easiest of scores.

The hosts' fourth try came from a lightning break after Harlequins botched an attacking lineout.

Centre Paul Costes beat his defender with a perfectly weighted kick that resulted in Dupont diving over, and the latter added another to give Toulouse a 19-point halftime lead.

Harlequins scored first in the second period through Murley's superb finish in the corner, and when Green added another, the gap was reduced to five points.

But just as it appeared that they might pull off an upset, Walker's yellow card was followed by a try for Mallia, and the scoreboard gap widened again.

SportsLigue