Tony Ward: Leinster’s ‘total rugby’ could land decisive blow in clash with Toulouse, the Real Madrid of the oval ball
Hugo Keenan of Leinster, centre, after the URC clash with Ulster. Photo: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Given that the game only went professional in 1995, rugby union has had quite some catching up to do on its round ball equivalent. Whereas the original European Cup for soccer came into being in 1956, it was 40 years later, in 1996 in Cardiff, that Toulouse and the home city club contested the inaugural European final. As with Real Madrid in ’56, Toulouse hit the ground running that afternoon in the then National Stadium with their first star of five to date.
They have been runners-up twice as well, thereby making it seven Champions Cup finals in total. Only Leinster, with four outright wins and three-time runners-up (all in the last five years), can claim to challenge Toulouse as rugby’s Real Madrid. Galactico is the name most closely associated with Spanish football’s finest, although Barcelona might put forward a case to challenge that assertion.
