Leinster 19
Scarlets 15
Sean Farrell reports from the RDS
THEY CUT IT fine in the end, but by keeping the league-leading Scarlets scoreless, Leinster ended the Welsh side’s unbeaten start to the season in week seven.
Jonathan Sexton was involved for the final half hour of the win, providing vocal leadership behind his pack, driving Leo Cullen’s side to turn the screw after they had shipped two tries in the first half.
By the time Sexton came on to a raucous reception, Mike Ross had already given the eastern province the lead with his second ever try. His only other touchdown came two and a half years ago, in the crazy Challenge Cup quarter-final win over Wasps. Perhaps the Premiership side should be aware of the in-form prop when they meet Leinster for another European date next Sunday.
Though they rested Samson Lee and DTH van der Merwe, the Scarlets XV came in to this game intent on closing out the early block of Pro12 games with a seventh straight win.
After getting a fortunate penalty from an innocuous incident involving Dominic Ryan, Wayne Pivac’s side set up centre Hadleigh Parkes to crash through the relatively lightweight centre partnership of Noel Reid and Garry Ringrose to go under the posts and open up a seven-point lead after just three minutes.
The pair have plenty of qualities that don’t relate to out and out bulk, of course, and Leinster’s best moments in the opening period came through the excellent footwork and balanced running of Reid when Jake Ball was in the sin-bin.
Rob Kearney won a fast-pace sprint for a grubber past the Leinster try-line, beating Gareth Owen to touch the ball down. However, that would be Kearney’s last act of the game as he limped off holding his hamstring to be replaced by Ben Te’o.
The reshuffle was immediately taken advantage of by the in-form Welsh province, John Barclay made the hard yards down the left and Owens raided in to the corner to turn 6 – 7 into 6 – 12.
Madigan would narrow the gap with an excellent long-range score soon after, but that was cancelled out by Dan Jones’ second successful kick of the night.
To erase the 9 – 15 half-time deficit, Leinster looked to the attacking maul which had functioned so well in the first half. And it formed the base the the game-turning score as the blues rumbled through the phases before Ross powered onto the try-line for a rare score.
To the delight of the 14,743 in the RDS, Jonathan Sexton appeared back in the RDS for the first time since his two-year sojourn to Paris. Though the decision to send him on in place of Te’o rather than Madigan or Ringrose left the back-line rather short on power.
There were sparks of excellence from Reid and Sexton thought he marked his return with a clinical finish to a set move. But he was called back for crossing and the Welsh outfit were still within four points.
Scarlets, having not looked like scoring in the second half, had Leinster pinned in to their own 22 for the closing minutes and forced the RDS fateful into their loudest roars of the night to encourage blue wall to keep making hits.
The turnover, when it came, was greeted with huge relief. But there remains a sense of momentum to this Leinster campaign as Cullen’s men helped knock Scarlets off the top of the table, with Connacht taking over.
Scorers
Leinster
Tries: M Ross
Conversions: I Madigan
Penalties: I Madigan (4)
Scarlets
Tries: H Parkes, G Owen
Conversions: D Jones
Penalties: D Jones
Teams
Leinster: Rob Kearney (B Te’o ’23 (J Sexton ’51)) ; Zane Kirchner, Garry Ringrose, Noel Reid, Cian Kelleher; Ian Madigan, Isaac Boss: Cian Healy (J McGrath ’50), James Tracy (B Byrne ’65), Mike Ross (M Moore ’50); Devin Toner, Tom Denton (H Triggs ’64), Dominic Ryan (D Leavy ’75), Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip (Capt).
Scarlets: Aled Thomas (M Collins ’60), Tom Williams, Gareth Owen, Hadleigh Parkes, Michael Tagicakibau (H Robinson ’54), Dan Jones, Gareth Davies (A Davies ’75): Rob Evans, Emyr Phillips, Peter Edwards, Jake Ball (T Price ’60), Lewis Rawlins, Aaron Shingler, James Davies, John Barclay (Capt)
Referee: Leighton Hodges
