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Loose Leinster scrape by Connacht to extend winning run
By PA
United Rugby Championship leaders Leinster made it 10 wins from 10 in all competitions, but had to work hard for a 20-12 victory over Connacht at the Aviva Stadium.
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Tries from Andrew Osborne and Charlie Tector gave Leinster a 14-0 half-time lead, although they should have made more of a yellow card for Connacht centre Shane Jennings.
After watching Ross Byrne kick a penalty, Connacht capitalised on Lee Barron’s sin-binning to make it a five-point game, with Oisin Dowling and Jennings both crossing.
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Mack Hansen was growing in influence for the westerners, yet a scrappy final 20 minutes ended with Leinster fly-half Byrne clinching the result with a 79th-minute penalty.
With 13 changes from last week, Leo Cullen’s men applied early pressure. Connacht dug in defensively with Bundee Aki and Jennings coming up with crucial plays.
Nineteen minutes in, Byrne used a zippy move off what was a mostly unreliable Leinster lineout to send Osborne racing over. Byrne converted.
Jennings then saw yellow for a late tackle on Luke McGrath and Connacht’s midfield was opened up again. Barrett neatly slipped Tector through to score, with Byrne converting.
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Connacht briefly gained momentum through the running of Paul Boyle and Josh Ioane, until the latter had to come off injured.
Darragh Murray’s ability to steal Leinster’s lineout ball was a big positive for the visitors, along with Shamus Hurley-Langton’s turnover wins.
Playing into the wind on the restart, Byrne pushed the margin out to 17 points but Connacht responded well.
Leinster’s repeated penalties landed replacement Barron in the sin bin in the 51st minute, and the resulting tap penalty led to Dowling burrowing over.
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Hurley-Langton and Hansen provided further spark, and with Leinster increasingly narrow in defence, Jennings was sent in behind the posts. Forde’s conversion closed the gap to 17-12.
Connacht captain Cian Prendergast did brilliantly to hold up Barron, denying him a certain try on the 70-minute mark.
Jimmy O’Brien was then binned for taking Hansen out in the air to give the visitors hope, but it was Byrne who had the final say for the table toppers.
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I was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
I can't see them getting to the final of the Champons Cup.
Could well be their year. Still winning games while playing utterly puke rugby.