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A youthful Leinster selection make it look easy versus Cardiff
By PA
A youthful Leinster team maintained their BKT United Rugby Championship table-topping form with a 38-14 win over Cardiff at the RDS. Luke McGrath scored two tries in a 10-minute spell, adding to Max Deegan’s opener, as Leo Cullen’s much-changed side led 19-0 at half-time.
Cardiff struggled to get going in greasy conditions, a Jason Harries yellow card being swiftly followed by Brian Deeny’s 49th-minute bonus-point score. Cardiff had two late scores from replacements Rory Thornton and Kristian Dacey, in response to a Max O’Reilly effort, but the hosts had the final say when Liam Turner capitalised on a loose pass from Ellis Bevan.
Despite the returning Rey Lee-Lo landing a thumping tackle on Harry Byrne, Leinster took a sixth-minute lead through their industrious forwards.
Having been held up short moments later, number eight Deegan powered over for an unconverted try following John McKee’s tapped penalty and an inviting pass from Scott Penny. McKee and Deegan again gained ground, midway through the first half, before a slick penalty move saw Byrne release McGrath to make it 12-0.
A Jarrod Evans spill spoiled a promising attack for Cardiff, while their pillar defence went missing when McGrath sniped over from a 29th-minute ruck. Byrne converted.
Turner’s barnstorming break - off a Ben Brownlee offload - kept Leinster on the front foot in the second half, and further pressure saw Cardiff winger Harries binned for a deliberate knock-on. Second row Deeny then drove over with support from Deegan, Byrne’s conversion widening the margin to 26 points.
James Botham was busy at the breakdown for Cardiff but for little reward. Instead, Leinster went further in front before the hour mark, Chris Cosgrave’s looping pass putting fellow Academy back O’Reilly over in the right corner.
Cardiff finally built momentum off a Harries run, and from a subsequent penalty, Botham was hauled down short before Thornton plunged over for Evans to convert. Corey Domachowski’s eye-catching break led to a close-range seven-pointer from Dacey, yet a sidestepping Turner took Leinster’s try haul to six. Replacement Charlie Tector converted for his first points at this level.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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