Brian O'Driscoll justified his decision to turn down an invite to the Royal Wedding in favour of preparation with his Leinster side as they ran out narrow 32-23 winners at the Aviva Stadium.
O'Driscoll scored a try himself with Fly half Jonny Sexton contributing 22 points of his own, with man of the match Jamie Heaslip the other try scorer.
First Half
Florian Fritz scored after a penalty from Skrela hit the post bounced and kicked back allowing Fritz to touch down with the follow up, with Skrela not missing a second time with the conversion.
Leinster reduced the deficit with a Sexton penalty, after Gordon D'Arcy broke the line, shrugging off the tackle of Skrela allowing O'Driscoll to inch ever closer to the line triggering the infringement from Toulouse
Skrela responded immediately with an opportune drop goal after the play got clogged up in the forwards, restoring the seven point advantage.
Another Sexton penalty kept an otherwise toothless Leinster side in touch as experienced head of the Irish side tried to get things moving.
Toulouse continued to play the running rugby French rugby fans have become accustomed to, but Leinster kept the door firmly shut and cleared their lines with ease.
Leinster turned defence into attack as they continued to ask questions of the Toulouse defence and Sexton had his diving effort referred to the TMO before referee Dave Pearson awarded a deserved try.
Captain O Driscoll then was shown a yellow card for killing the ball leaving the home side a man down at the break as Toulouse levelled the match up at 13 apiece.
Leinster ended a lively first half with the lead though as Sexton slotted a regulation penalty to edge the match slightly.
Second Half
Coming out with a man advantage, Toulouse almost had the perfect start to the second half, only for Vincent Clerc to get the ball caught up in his feet and was dealt with
accordingly.
Louis Picamoles made the pressure count though when, after receiving an offload from team mate Jean-Marc Doussain, ambled over the line to regain the lead for Toulouse.
Sexton reduced the deficit to just one point as Toulouse were adjudged to be offside by referee Pearson.
Prop Kian Healy unleashed the after burners and almost scored single handedly only to be caught at the last.
Leinster then rung the changes bringing on Shane Jennings, Isaac Boss and Henrik Van de Merwe and the changes paid off immediately as Van Der Merwe forced the penalty against opposite number Census Johnston, allowing Sexton to regain the lead for his side.
Leinster were now playing with a renewed vigour and had the defending champions on the back foot as they increasingly turned the screw.
As always seems to happen in big games, the talismanic O'Driscoll who was sin binned earlier in the match, scythed through the Toulouse defence to put daylight between the two sides.
Sexton added the extras to take the lead beyond one score.
Leinster could smell blood and ruthlessly played territory as they looked to put the game to bed.
Replacement fly half Nicholas Bezy gave his side a sniff as Leinster could not convert the dominance into points with five minutes remaining.
A late penalty against Toulouse sealed their fate, much to the delight of the 50,000 Leinster fans in the Aviva Stadium as Sexton sealed the victory with yet another accurate kick, sealing a 32-23 win.
Final Score Leinster 32-23 Toulouse
Man of the Match: Jamie Heaslip
Leinster avenge their semi-final exit last season by eliminating the defending champions and move on to face the winners of Northampton and Perpignan at Stadium:MK in the second semi-final.
