Sarries ruin perfect Leinster season in Euro rugby union

No one in the five nations of the rugby union Pro14 could touch Leinster in 2019-20. However, the English power Saracens knocked Leinster out of the European cup. Leinster still took the all-time lead in the European rugby union traveling standings.

Stepping out of the Pro14, Leinster finally met its match in the 2019-20 European rugby union traveling championship.

The Lions still had the best year with the traveler of anyone in Europe and moved into first place in these all-time standings composed of two seasons. But losing at all, to anyone, was news.

Leinster held the title for 12 games, starting with a Pro14 win over Ulster in Dublin on Dec. 20 and ending with another Pro14 win over Ulster in Dublin on Sept. 12. The latter was the Pro14 Grand Final, at the end of which Leinster had won all 17 of its games, regular season and playoffs, in the Pro14, as well as all seven games on the way to winning the Celtic Cup. They also were 6-0 in Champions Cup pool play.

That is, Leinster was 30-0 in its major competitions for 2019-20 entering the knockout quarterfinals of the European Challenge Cup. Three wins from an absolutely perfect 33-0 season.

But Leinster didn't get even one of them. The Lions were undone by a Saracens club attempting to defend the European championship and its own honor in the face of domestic relegation for breaking the salary cap. The 25-17 win for the Sarries gave them a chance to salvage a disappointing year. For Leinster, it ended the year.

Immediately, Saracens fell in the semifinals to the Parisian side, Racing 92, which then lost the Grand Final, 31-27, to Exeter. Thus, Exeter has the championship entering 2020-21.

But Leinster now has a big lead in the all-time standings with 20 games of the title. Toulouse, which didn't run into the championship in 2019-20, is second with 10. Ulster and Saracens are tied for third place with three games each.

Leinster unblemished in 2019-20 5 nations rugby lineal

Leinster won the Pro14 for the third straight time in 2019-20, this time blowing through the circuit with a perfect regular season that stayed that way all the way through the Grand Final. Leinster now has a huge lead historically in this lineal championship chase.

 When we talk about NFL teams having a chance to go 18-0, it's a big deal. 

Perhaps the Pro14 doesn't get as much attention, but Leinster did go all the way, unbeaten, 15-0 during the regular season and another two wins through the Grand Final.

That's 17-0 for Leinster in the Pro14 for 2020. It was a shortened and interrupted season, of course, because of coronavirus. But it was all Leinster.

The 2018-19 season ended with Leinster holding the lineal championship, but it was close overall. Leinster had 10 games of title and Munster had nine. 

But Leinster has broken that open now to 27 games of championship, three times as many as any other club. And Leinster still held the title at the end of 2019-20, meaning it will take it into 2020-21.

Toulouse escapes European rugby race with season title

Edinburgh and Saracens foiled Leinster bids to catch Toulouse in the European rugby union traveling championship running through the 2018-19 season.

It came down to whether Leinster or Toulouse would come through 2018-19 as a double traveling champion. The difference makers were Edinburgh and Saracens, which won crucial games from Leinster and allowed Toulouse to prevail.

We might mark Oct. 21 as a critical early juncture of the continental championship, the day Leinster took the European title into the south of France, where hosting Toulouse treated the Dubliners to a 28-27 heartbreak. Two matches later, on Nov. 3, Toulouse smashed visiting Bordeaux Bègles, 40-0, to capture the French championship.

Toulouse then held the two titles concurrently until Jan. 12, a period of more than two months, before losing the Euro title in a rematch at Leinster, 29-13. The period encompassed seven defenses of the European title and five defenses of the French championship.

Toulouse made six more defenses of the French title before a 25-20 loss at Toulon on April 6. While that was happening, Leinster was mounting a serious attack against Toulouse's lead with the European title. Toulouse came out of its loss at Leinster with 10 games of title. Leinster, defending its title won from Toulouse three times, ran its total of titled games for the year to eight as it went to Edinburgh on March 22.

Leinster might be the best team in Europe and Edinburgh was a lower-half Pro 14 club in 2018-19. But Edinburgh hung a 28-11 loss on Leinster, taking the European championship. It happened that Edinburgh's next game, again at home, would be a Champions Cup encounter with Munster, which took the traveler in a 17-13 decision.

After two defenses, Munster dropped the Euro title to English champion Saracens. On their third defense, on May 11, the Sarries turned back Leinster, 32-16, winning the Champions Cup. In addition, they foiled a bid by Leinster to catch Toulouse on the season ladder for the European traveling championship.

Saracens, which had recently captured the English championship, now held both. That would not last. The entire traveling championship world was stunned when, on May 18, the final day of the season, Saracens took a 31-29 loss at Worcester Warriors. Thus, the Warriors held both the English and European traveling rugby championships entering 2019-20.

Leinster outlasts Munster in manic Five Nations rugby race

Leinster overtook Munster at the tail end of a fantastic race for the Five Nations traveling rugby union championship in 2018-19, the first year of the championship.

Leinster turned out an historic double-championship rugby season in 2017-18, winning both the Pro 14 and the European Champions Cup. No other Pro 14 club had ever done that, and only five other clubs had ever done won their domestic league and the continental cup.

Turns out that Leinster also won Pro 14 in 2018-19. But Leinster didn't dominate as much as all those results suggest. In fact, the Dublin side barely finished ahead of Munster in our Five Nations traveling championship for 2018-19.

Leinster, defending the Pro 14 title, took the first defense with the traveler and lasted one game before falling, 23-21, at Scarlets the second game of the season. Leinster got it back with a 20-3 win against Connacht in Galway on Sept. 29, then held on for six defenses.

But this chase began to look a lot different when Leinster ventured into Limerick to take on Munster on Dec. 29. The Munster side chalked up a 26-17 win before embarking on four title defenses. A loss at Scarlets ended that streak on March 2, but Munster's 45-21 win at its Cork location against Cardiff Blues began another four-game streak to end the regular season.

Going to the Pro 14 playoffs, Munster held nine games of title, compared with eight for Leinster. But they met in the semifinals, and Leinster scored a 24-9 win before beating Glasgow Warriors, 18-15, in the league championship game at Glasgow. With that, Leinster overtook Munster with 10 games of title for the season championship.

Leinster also takes the prize into the 2019-20 season.