Leinster Rugby has called on it's Twitter followers to let the fantastic show of support for both sides at the Aviva to be "the narrative" after news emerged this morning that Gardaí were forced to remove a spectator in an alleged 'sectarian' incident during yesterday's Champions Cup quarter-final against Ulster.
Leo Cullen's side progressed to the last four after an Adam Byrne try turned the game in their favour late on, on what the club called "a special day for Irish Rugby".
Over 50,000 fans packed the Landsdowne Road venue for the All-Irish affair with countless social media posts showing a festival-like atmosphere being enjoyed by both sets of supporters both inside the ground and the surrounding watering holes.
At the ulster v Leinster game yesterday. Brilliant game and a brilliant atmosphere by both sets of fans. Good go see the north and the South sitting side by side true all forms of sport. pic.twitter.com/FbhzMI1YvJ
— Jason Maughan (@JasonMaughan6) March 31, 2019
As a Leinster fan having a group of Ulster fans going mental behind me through the whole match, singing chanting waving flags,,, was great craic!!! Great banter all round!
— Frank Askin (@francisaskin) March 31, 2019
A shame then that Leinster confirmed the disappointing news this morning that a patron had to be removed.
Leinster Rugby is aware of an isolated incident during yesterday’s game which was dealt with at the time by stewards and by Gardaí. There is no place in sport or in our society for any form of physical or verbal abuse.
Ulster for long periods looked likely to cause a big upset and take advantage of a Leinster side devoid of the services of Irish duo Rob Kearney and Johnny Sexton who both were ruled out of the tie through injury.
They led 13-11 at the break and had a golden opportunity to extend their lead when Jacob Stockdale did everything but ensure a firm grounding when he crossed in the corner early in the second period.
The northern side were to rue that miss after Byrne latched on to Jack Conan's pass in the 54th minute to put the home side ahead.
An unconverted Luke Marshall try for the visitors proved not enough to rein Leinster back in, who extended their cushion with ten minutes to go with a Ross Byrne penalty, before holding on in a frenetic finish.
