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Leicester fight fades as Leinster romp into Champions Cup semis
By
PA
Leinster moved within 80 minutes of a Heineken Champions Cup final on home soil after seeing off Leicester Tigers’ challenge with a 55-24 win at the Aviva Stadium.
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A brace of tries from Garry Ringrose had Leo Cullen’s men leading 17-10 at half time, with Anthony Watson diving over late on for Tigers.
A 10-point spurt, including a Jamison Gibson-Park try, saw Leinster deal impressively with a Caelan Doris yellow card, before a penalty try and Scott Penny’s first Champions Cup score came either side of Charlie Clare’s sin-binning.
Mike Brown also saw yellow but Leicester’s race was run at that stage, the final quarter seeing four tries shared out – including John McKee’s 79th-minute maul effort – as Leinster set up a Dublin semi-final date with Toulouse or Sharks.
A dozen phases after Hugo Keenan had gathered Ross Byrne’s kick-off, Heineken star-of-the-match Ringrose nipped inside Dan Kelly with a classy dummy and burst in behind the posts.
Byrne’s simple conversion – his first kick of an 18-point haul – was cancelled out by a Handre Pollard penalty. The visitors also forced an early scrum penalty.
Nonetheless, from a scrum on the right, a crisp Leinster move put Jimmy O’Brien motoring through the middle and he fed Ringrose for a simple finish and a 14-3 lead.
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Ryan Baird (shoulder) was desperately unlucky to go off injured, and despite a Byrne penalty, Leinster were unable to shake off their quarter-final opponents, who defended powerfully through captain Julian Montoya and Jasper Wiese.
From a late attacking surge, Brown’s quick tap injected pace and then Watson acrobatically scored from a Jack van Poortvliet pass. Pollard nailed the conversion to restore the seven-point differential.
Despite losing Montoya (HIA) permanently, Tigers continued to frustrate the home side and when Wiese was caught high by Doris, the Leinster flanker was sin-binned.
However, the seven-man pack eased the tension among the home crowd with a scrum penalty, slotted over by Byrne, and Leinster had breathing space just two minutes later.
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Robbie Henshaw’s nicely-delayed delivery put Ringrose through a gap and his inside pass released Gibson-Park to coast home. His half-back partner Byrne converted.
An unlikely turnover penalty, won by Byrne, led to Tigers pulling down a dominant Leinster maul for the penalty try and replacement hooker Clare’s yellow.
Replacement Penny broke through a maul and handed off Van Poortvliet for his 61st-minute try, converted by Byrne, before Tigers rallied. Cracknell burrowed over and fellow replacement Harry Potter ran in a 60-metre intercept try.
Yet, Leinster replied to both scores, taking advantage of Brown’s absence for a high tackle. Harry Byrne released O’Brien for the line and McKee was on the end of a snaking forwards dive.
