Cardiff 20
Leinster 33
LEINSTER WERE FORCED to flex their muscles in the second half to avoid back-to-back defeats at Cardiff Arms Park.
Having sped into a 12-point lead in as many minutes, Leo Cullen’s men found themselves trailing 15-12 at the break and in need of an increase in intensity in the final 40. They also had to start the revival with Jordan Larmour in the sin-bin for an offence in the build up to Cardiff’s second try.
In the end, though, it was back to business of usual with no repeat of the 29-27 heroics from the home side from 2022. Another bonus-point win on the road meant a return to the top.
It was achieved with a try-double from returning prop Michael Milne, who came off the bench to make a major impact in his first game of the season.
Two tries flowed in the opening 10 minutes and the Leinster back line blew hole after hole in the brittle home defence. They could, and should, have made more of their chances to make it an easier night.
The opening score came from wing Rob Russell after some neat play from his front five. Home outside half Tinus de Beer had his kick downfield near halfway charged down by Ross Molony and the ricochet went straight to tight head prop Tom Clarkson.
He ran straight and hard before giving Russell a free 40 metre race to the posts for a try that Ross Byrne converted.
Cardiff lost skipper No 8 Lopeti Tmani a minute later and then coughed up three successive penalties in their own 22. One line dive and two tap and go five metre penalties later, and Max Deegan burrowed his way over for the second try.
It seemed like the perfect payback for 2022, yet over the course of the next half-an-hour the gutsy home side hit back with a De Beer penalty and conversion of the first of two tries from loosehead prop Rhys Carre to take a 15-12 lead into the break.
You had to go back to 1 January for the last Leinster loss, a bruising 22-21 defeat in Dublin to Ulster, and just for a brief moment there were a few who dared to dream in the Welsh capital. It didn’t help Leinster’s cause that Larmour, celebrating his 100th game for the province, was off the field for 10 minutes either side of the interval after picking up a yellow card.
The visitors started the second half with a bang. They thought they had edged ahead when Tom Clarkson burrowed over from a metre out, but that try was ruled out by the TMO after Byrne had hit the post with his conversion.
It didn’t matter though because three minutes later, Michael Milne got over the line and this time, Byrne added the extras. Flushed with success, Milne added a second on the hour-mark to bag the bonus-point.
Another replacement front rower, John McKee, added a fifth and Cardiff bagged their third through Aled Summerhill as they fought to the end.
Scorers for Cardiff:
Tries: R Carre 2, A Sumerhil
Conversions: T de Beer
Penalties: T de Beer
Scorers for Leinster:
Tries: M Milne 2, R Russell, M Deegan, J McKee
Conversions: R Byrne 4
CARDIFF: Jacob Beetham (Willis Halaholo 25); Owen Lane, Max Clark, Ben Thomas, Aled Summerhill; Tinus de Beer, Ellis Bevan (Matthew Aubrey 71); Rhys Carré (Rhys Barratt 71), Liam Belcher (Dafydd Hughes 71), Will Davies-King (Ciaran Parker 56), Shane Lewis-Hughes, Josh Turnbull (captain, Ben Donnell 56), Ellis Jenkins, Thomas Young (Lucas de la Rua 73), Lopeti Timani (Alun Lawrence 6).
LEINSTER: Jordan Larmour; Liam Turner, Jamie Osborne, Harry Byrne (Ben Brownlee 62), Rob Russell; Ross Byrne (Sam Prendergast 71), Luke McGrath (Ben Murphy 71); Jack Boyle (Michael Milne 30), Lee Barron (John McKee 53), Thomas Clarkson (Michael Ala’alatoa 52), Ross Molony, Jason Jenkins (Brian Deeny 52), Will Connors (Rhys Ruddock), Scott Penny (Captain), Max Deegan.
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU).