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Leinster get revenge over Ulster to book URC semi-final with Bulls

By PA
Ulster head coach Richie Murphy and Josh van der Flier of Leinster after the United Rugby Championship quarter-final match between Leinster and Ulster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. (Photo By Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Leinster brushed aside Ulster 43-20 at the Aviva Stadium to book a United Rugby Championship semi-final clash against the Bulls in Pretoria next weekend.

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Converted tries from Robbie Henshaw and James Lowe, as well as a Ross Byrne penalty, had Leinster leading 17-0 at half-time and well on course for a place in the last four.

Ulster, who had claimed two regular-season victories over their provincial rivals, had missed out on two close-range tries before finally getting on the scoreboard through John Cooney’s 42nd-minute penalty.

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    David McCann, Stewart Moore and Michael Lowry also crossed for second-half tries for the battling visitors, but Leinster were rarely in danger and added four more tries to their first-half tally with Lowe, Jordan Larmour, Josh van der Flier and replacement Ross Molony touching down.

    Leinster had no points to show for some early pressure, brought on by a maul steal from player-of-the-match Joe McCarthy.

    A Cormac Izuchukwu break had the visitors threatening, but Matty Rea was unable to link with Cooney, and Nick Timoney was held up.

    Izuchukwu’s injury-enforced departure was a big blow for Ulster, as was the sight of Henshaw striding over for the game’s opening try in the 21st minute after Jamie Osborne has broken out of Moore’s tackle to supply the assist.

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    Byrne converted and tagged on a 30th-minute penalty, and it was his inside pass that released Lowe to further increase Leinster’s advantage

    With Richie Murphy’s Ulster side pressing to get back into the game before the interval, Greg Jones knocked on and Leinster, infringing again near their own line, avoided a yellow card before a key Ryan Baird lineout steal.

    Cooney finally got Ulster up and running with a 43rd-minute penalty but Leinster quickly responded with Lowe deftly displaying his footballing skills along the left touchline, nudging the ball through before touching down and opening up a 19-point gap.

    Cooney’s precise skip pass put McCann over, as the game became looser. Crucially though, Leinster always had the answers.

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    Henshaw sent Larmour over out wide to make it 29-8, before Moore replied from a McIlroy kick to keep Ulster just about in the contest.

    However, Van der Flier, set free by Osborne, slammed the door shut with 13 minutes remaining as another converted try saw Leinster move 36-15 ahead.

    Molony scrambled over from five metres out give victorious Leinster a sixth try, although a valiant Ulster had the last word through Lowry, darting over from Nathan Doak’s cross-field kick.

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    N
    NH 1 hour ago
    'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

    Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

    17 Go to comments
    J
    JW 1 hour ago
    Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

    Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


    Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


    No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


    So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


    The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

    68 Go to comments
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