DUBLIN (Reuters) -Winger James Lowe scored a hat-trick of tries to help Ireland’s Leinster to a third successive European Champions Cup final as they edged Northampton Saints 20-17 in Saturday’s semi-final in front of a record 82,300 crowd at Croke Park.
Leinster, runners-up in the last two editions, will now meet the winner of Sunday’s second semi-final in France between Toulouse and Harlequins. The final will be at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on May 25.
Lowe went over for two tries in the opening 15 minutes, both set up by the quick thinking of scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park, and completed his hat-trick soon after the halftime break, when Leinster were 15-3 up.
Ross Byrne kicked over a penalty and conversion but Northampton played themselves back into contention with a 58th minute try from George Hendy and then set up a grandstand finish when substitute Tom Seabrook scored four minutes from the end. Fin Smith converted both and also slotted over a penalty.
Gibson Park took a quick tap penalty to catch Northampton’s defence napping before swinging the ball out wide to Lowe to score the first try in the 11th minute.
Four minutes later, the scrumhalf again had his wits about him, slapping on a pop-up pass from captain Caelan Doris, who had been held up on the Saints’ goalline, for Lowe to catch and dot.
To complete his hat-trick in the 44th minute, Irish international Lowe finished off a superb move involving offloads from Tadhg Furlong, Jamie Osborne and Dan Sheehan before Ryan Baird broke down field.
After he was held up, Leinster fullback Ciaran Frawley floated a pass for Lowe to run over in the corner.
The 20-3 lead suggested a relatively easy assignment for the much fancied Irish but Northampton, who are leading the English Premiership, had other ideas.
They got themselves back into the contest with a 59th minute try as Leinster lost their own lineout and then did not deal with Hendy’s forward chip before he gathered up the ball and scored.
THRILLING COMEBACK
After a spell of pressure, Seabrook went over in the corner to hand Northampton the chance of a thrilling comeback win with time running out. But they gave away a penalty in the last minute as they pushed forward in search of victory.
The attendance for the match, held at the traditional home of Gaelic sport, set a record for the Champions Cup beating the previous mark of 82,208 in the 2009 semi-final.
Saints were the first English club to play at The Gaelic Athletic Association’s headquarters as Dublin’s Aviva Stadium was unavailable due to preparations for the football’s Europa League final later this month.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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