No fifth star as Saints do the business in Ireland

@ccbentos

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HERE will be no fifth star adorning Leinster shirts this season after a ‘Saintly’ Northampton performance in Ireland on Saturday.

With off the field events dominating Exeter rugby's media, it was good to have an outstanding game take centre stage to write the headlines this week. The Investec Champions Cup Semi Final between Leinster and Northampton was a genuine classic.

With four European Champions Cups, one EPCR Challenge Cup and four times runners up in the Champions Cup, Leinster are second only to Toulouse on the European honours board.

Leinster currently top the URC table with 14 wins from 16 outings this term. They sit comfortably eight points clear of second-placed Glasgow, but in truth the Dublin clubs focus is undoubtedly the European Champions Cup, and the fifth Star they plan to sew on their shirts by the end of the season.

Picture the scene, a buzzing sun-drenched Aviva stadium packed with a partisan Irish crowd to roar them on, the bookies offering 33-1 odds on a Leinster win over Northampton Saints who have lost eight of their 15 Premiership games this season wallowing a lowly seventh in the Gallagher Premiership.

Having kept both Glasgow Warriors and Harlequins to nil in their two previous knockout games, few other than the Northampton XV gave any chance at all in this ‘Saint David v Leinster Goliath’ encounter.