LEO CULLEN HAILED his Leinster side’s young players and a dominant scrum after they survived a difficult encounter in Neath to down the Ospreys 21-13.
In the unusual surroundings of The Gnoll, Leinster were pegged back to a one-point lead at the hour mark. They still came out on top thanks to tries from Tommy O’Brien, Josh Murphy and Cian Kelleher. Ciaran Frawley kicked two conversions while Harry Byrne added one.
“We started the second half quite well with some sustained pressure and I thought the scrum was an important weapon for us,” said a delighted Cullen after Leinster went 12 from 12 in the Guinness Pro14 this season to stay top of Conference A.
“It was far from perfect for us, but we’re delighted to get a win over here in tricky conditions. We still know we need to be better.
The bench was the most pleasing thing. We had six academy players on the bench and all those guys were able to get some game time and made various impacts.
Early replacement O’Brien opened Leinster’s account following a neat blindside move and Frawley improved the effort as the Irish side played into a stiff breeze.
Ospreys did turn around ahead thanks to a penalty from Luke Price and his conversion of a try from wing Luke Morgan as they capitalised on a Leinster error in midfield.
Leinster retook the lead early in the second half. Following a series of reset scrums under the home posts, a try eventually arrived as Murphy crossed from close range underneath a pile of bodies.
Frawley converted, but it had been number eight Rhys Ruddock who had laid the platform for the try.
Price responded with a penalty to leave just a point between the teams at the hour mark, but Leinster made the game safe when they forced replacement Ospreys hooker Sam Parry to be yellow carded for a professional foul.
Wing Kelleher waltzed over in the corner soon after and Harry Byrne converted.
“It was always going to be tricky in the conditions,” said Cullen after his team moved past 50 players used for the season. “We scored a nice try in the first half to go 7-0 up, we had a lot of good pressure, and I thought we were looking okay.
“But we were a little bit inaccurate at times, particularly in the five minutes before half time. We gave away a penalty to make it 7-3 and coughed up the ball. That was a big moment in the game because if we’d gone in at half time 7-3 up and they’ been trying to play into the wind, it would have made life a bit more difficult for them.”