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Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan scores 4 tries as Leinster thrash Benetton
By PA
Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan helped himself to four tries as Leinster had little trouble in beating Benetton 42-10 in the United Rugby Championship at the RDS.
One of a dozen players returning from the New Zealand tour, Sheehan scored a 28-minute hat-trick to give the hosts a 21-3 half-time lead.
Replacement Manfredi Albanese ended Benetton’s wait for a try, but Leinster ended up running in six tries in total as Josh van der Flier, Sheehan and Luke McGrath added further scores.
Sheehan is the eighth player, and first from Leinster, to score four tries in a URC match. The last one to do so was Marcell Coetzee for Ulster against Zebre in November 2020.
News of Stuart Lancaster’s possible departure to Racing 92 at the end of the season – French reports suggest that a four-year deal for the Leinster senior coach to move to Paris is a done deal – dominated the build-up to this game.
Joaquin Riera’s break signalled a bright start for Benetton, but Leinster seized a sixth-minute lead when forward Sheehan was driven over from a well-executed lineout maul.
Benetton winger Mattia Bellini was sin-binned just before that, for a pull-back on Dave Kearney near the visitors’ line, and Ciaran Frawley converted Sheehan’s try for a 7-0 lead.
Replacement Henry Time-Stowers lifted the Italians with a turnover penalty, but some aggressive carrying off a lineout preceded Sheehan’s second converted score in the 16th minute.
Benetton fly-half Giacomo da Re replied with a penalty but, despite Samoan Time-Stowers foiling one Leinster maul, the hosts increased their lead when a subsequent drive propelled Sheehan over for his hat-trick.
Leinster moved further ahead within six minutes of the restart when flanker Van der Flier was released for the right corner and replacement Ross Byrne converted.
The home side took a familiar route to the whitewash in the 52nd minute, Sheehan charging over from another maul with Byrne’s boot making it 35-3.
Recent Italy debutant Albanese sniped over from a ruck in response, before Leinster captain Garry Ringrose had a try disallowed for McGrath being in touch.
However, the Leinster scrum-half did manage to have the final say in the 71st minute, using the maul platform to finish smartly with Byrne converting again.
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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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