Madigan kicks Leinster into semis

Ian Madigan slotted six penalties to hand Leinster a dramatic 18-15 victory over Bath to advance to their seventh European Champions Cup semifinal.

Bath scored the only tries of the gripping Aviva Stadium contest but centre Madigan was on target with six from six to soar to 98 points in this season's competition and clinch Leinster's prestigious place in the last four.

But they had to hang on in the dying minutes of a grandstand finish for a 18-15 after Bath's flyhalf George Ford had scored one and made the second Bath try.

It was heartbreak for Bath on their first appearance in the knock-out stages for six years, the penalty goal chances they handed Madigan ultimately proving extremely costly.

Both clubs made early efforts to go wide - albeit with errors cutting short promising moves - and a dazzling break out of defence by England wing Anthony Watson was carried on by Matt Banahan before Leinster managed to halt the threat.

But offside gave Madigan, the tournament's leading points scorer this season, the chance to open the scoring and the centre duly obliged to take his tally to 83 points and give the Irish club first blood.

Ford had an immediate chance to level matters but the pivot was short with his long range effort and Leinster made the most of the reprieve to go back on the attack.

Bath dug deep defensively before Francois Louw stormed through to give the travelling fans something to shout about and while the first try took 21 minutes in coming it was worth every second of the wait.

Sublime skills by Ford saw him slice open the Leinster defence and glide over for a magnificent solo try.

His attempted conversion bounced back out of the left upright for more points through the boot to go begging and Madigan kicked Leinster back in front with his second successful penalty.

There was more woe for the 1998 champions with Watson shown a yellow card by French referee Jerome Garces for his challenge on Rob Kearney from the restart and down to 14 they were further adrift with Madigan making it three from three from the tee.

And luck went Madigan and Leinster's way when he made that four from four courtesy of a fortunate bounce from the upright that cleared the crossbar to open up a seven-points advantage.

That became 10 as Bath again fell foul of referee Garces and Madigan needed no help from the upright this time.

Leinster suffered an early second half blow when Fergus McFadden needed lengthy treatment after a heavy collision before leaving the action, his replacement Zane Kirchner forced out just short of the line with his first contribution.

But the next decisive action came from Bath - and, again, it came courtesy of some Ford magic as he exploited a gap in the home defence to cut through and send captain Stuart Hooper plunging over.

Ford was successful with the boot for the first time with the conversion but their joy was short lived before as they presented Madigan with a sixth chance to punish their indiscipline on the scoreboard.

And with Leinster turning the screw at scrum time with devastating effect Bath were struggling to stay in touch as they introduced Sam Burgess into the fray.

Watson again set the place alight with a scything run but former Munster star Peter Stringer was given a rousing reception when he came on for his 100th tournament appearance - the international scrum half only the fourth player to reach that milestone.

Ford kept Bath's hopes alive with a successful penalty that cut the home advantage to just three points but Leinster hung on to edge their way into the semifinals.

Man of the Match: For Bath, Francois Louw proved his class with massive tackles and some nifty runs while George Ford showed what he is capable of by grabbing the first try of the match and setting up another with some elusive running. Our man of the match goes to Leinster's Ian Madigan for his deadly-accurate boot which saw him score all of his side's points.

The scorers:

For Leinster:

Pens: Madigan 6

For Bath:

Tries: Ford, Hooper

Con: Ford

Pen: Ford

Yellow card: Anthony Watson (Bath, 26 - cynical infringement, tackling the player in the air)

Teams:

Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Fergus McFadden, 13 Ben Te'o, 12 Ian Madigan, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Jamie Heaslip (captain), 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Jordi Murphy, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Devin Toner, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Cian Healy.

Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Marty Moore, 19 Tom Denton, 20 Dominic Ryan, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Gordon D'Arcy, 23 Zane Kirchner.

Bath: 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford, 9 Micky Young, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Carl Fearns, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Stuart Hooper (captain), 3 Kane Palma-Newport, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Paul James.

Replacements: 16 Ross Batty, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 Matt Garvey, 20 Alafoti Faosiliva, 21 Peter Stringer, 22 Sam Burgess, 23 Tom Homer.

Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)

Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (France), Patrick Péchambert (France)

TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)

Source - @ChampionsCup & @rugby365com