Scarlets 23
Leinster 21
Alex Bywater reports from Parc Y Scarlets
LEINSTER GOT THE better of the Scarlets on the big stage twice last season, but Leo Cullen’s men were unable to produce the goods this evening as they suffered their first defeat of the new campaign.
In the process, the home side extended their unbeaten home league run to 22 matches as they prevailed by just two points in a tit-for-tat encounter.
Leinster outscored their opponents by three tries to two — Fergus McFadden, James Lowe and Rhys Ruddock all crossing — but it wasn’t enough for victory.
Gareth Davies scored a crucial second-half try for the home side after man of the match Ken Owens had opened the scoring, with the excellent Leigh Halfpenny kicking 13 points.
Leinster had to be content with a losing bonus point.
Scarlets totally dominated the first 10 minutes: Leinster lived a charmed life, Johnny McNicholl charging down the wing and laying the platform for the Scarlets to pound away at the Irish line.
A series of surges ended in Josh Murphy seeing yellow for a professional foul and after Ross Byrne’s superb cover tackle had denied Davies a try, Scarlets finally broke through.
Home centre Hadleigh Parkes had started the game like a train, but it was his forwards who got the try as a series of pick and drives ended in man of the match Owens making the line.
Halfpenny converted for a 7-0 lead Wayne Pivac’s side certainly deserved.
Leinster hadn’t even got started, but going behind helped them to finally wake up.
Ross Byrne pushed a penalty wide and then Rory O’Loughlin had a try ruled out for a forward pass by Jordan Larmour, but it was soon second time lucky for the former.
Following a powerful Leinster driving maul which splintered the Scarlets’ pack, the ball was spread right where O’Loughlin’s wonderful floating pass allowed McFadden to dive over.
Byrne’s inch-perfect touchline conversion levelled the scores.
Scarlets retook the lead via a Halfpenny penalty following Ruddock’s high tackle on Blade Thomson, but Leinster weren’t behind for long.
They finished the first period like an express train. Persistent pressure saw Scarlets tighthead Samson Lee sin-binned for killing the ball and Leinster finally broke through.
Byrne’s pass sent Lowe over and the out-half nailed the kick for a 14-10 interval lead.
Scarlets weren’t helped by losing McNicholl, Josh Macleod and Rob Evans to first-half injuries, but they won a contentious scrum penalty to tighten their deficit when the game resumed.
Halfpenny stepped up and another missed kick from Byrne only served to heighten the enthusiasm of the home crowd as Leinster changed their all-international front row.
The game was now on a knife-edge. Halfpenny kicked another penalty but given the option to respond, Byrne went for the corner and saw his team turned over by James Davies.
Leinster had unloaded their bench, but little errors at key moments held them back and Parkes’ stunning break sent scrum-half Gareth Davies over for the crucial try which Halfpenny improved.
Ruddock set-up a grandstand finish by crossing late on, Byrne kicking the goal, but Leinster couldn’t repeat the late drama they produced in Cardiff as this time they came up short.
SCARLETS: Halfpenny; McNicholl (Nicholas 13), Fonotia (Asquith 66), Parkes, Prydie; Jones, G Davies; Evans (Price 39), Owens (capt) (Elias 71), Lee (Kruger 71), Ball (Rawlins 64), Cummins, Thomson, J Davies, Macleod (Kennedy 27) (Kruger 40-46)
Replacement not used: Hidalgo-Clyne
LEINSTER: Larmour; McFadden, O’Loughlin (Tomane 66), Henshaw, Lowe; Byrne, Gibson-Park (McGrath 61); Healy (Dooley 54), Cronin (Tracy 54), Furlong (Porter 54), Toner, Nagle (Kearney 71), Murphy (Deegan 61), Ruddock, Conan
Replacement not used: Reid
Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland)