Leinster 14 Dragons 16
LEINSTER WERE MISSING a host of internationals but with so much experience on the pitch Matt O’Connor will be bitterly disappointed with his side’s display at the RDS as his charges were shocked by the lowly Dragons.
Leinster threatened in the opening stages and had an early penalty which they kicked to the corner but it was the visitors who scored first with Pat Leach going over for a try under the posts.
Shortly afterwards Noel Reid and Tom Denton clashed heads with both players needing to be replaced as a result, with Luke Fitzgerald and Mike McCarthy coming off the bench.
Leinster opened their account just after a quarter of an hour when Jimmy Gopperth kicked a penalty from the Dragons 10m line.
The visitors lost Rhys Thomas to the sin bin and ten minutes before half time Gopperth reduced the deficit to a single point with another penalty.
Despite enjoying a lot of territory, Leinster couldn’t breach the Dragons defence and the Welsh side extended their lead to four with a Tom Prydie penalty right on half time.
Leinster almost scored their first try two minutes after the break but Luke Fitzgerald knocked on when stretching for the line after good work by Ben Te’o.
However, they won a penalty from the resulting scrum and Gopperth’s kick was successful.
Prydie replied with another penalty for the Dragons before Leinster finally broke the Dragons resistance.
Te’o once again made a break before offloading to substitute John Cooney who kicked ahead and it was the returning Dave Kearney who won the race to touch down.
But Gopperth sent his conversion wide and Prydie was able to restore the visitor’s advantage with seven minutes to go.
Leinster couldn’t muster a winning score and the Dragons handed them their first defeat at the RDS since March 2013.
