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Leinster stay top as Munster win big
By Iain Strachan
Leinster edged Cardiff Blues 22-21 to stay top of the Pro12 on Saturday after direct rivals Munster thrashed Zebre 50-14.
The hosts were in front four minutes in at the RDS Arena, Dan Leavy touching down after getting on the end of Noel Reid's grubber and Ross Byrne converting.
Tomos Williams responded for Cardiff, racing over the line after smart offloads from Blaine Scully and then Rey Lee-Lo.
Luke McGrath found the gap to score Leinster's second seven minutes before the break, the hosts going in 14-7 at half-time.
Kristian Dacey's run allowed Williams to claim his and Cardiff's second soon after the resumption, and Sion Bennett from the bench also produced a great solo effort to earn the visitors a 21-7 lead.
But Leinster had the last word, lock Ross Molony powering over with 13 minutes to go to seal the win and secure his team's place at the top of the table.
Munster are second, two points behind the leaders, after romping to a dominant victory at Zebre.
Ronan O'Mahony and James Cronin scored two tries apiece and there were singles for Tommy O'Donnell and brothers Niall and Rory Scannell.
Later, third-placed Ospreys slipped up in their attempt to keep pace with the top two, going down 13-5 at second-from-bottom Treviso. Alberto Sgarbi crossed early to open the scoring for the hosts, Keelan Giles responding for Ospreys in first-half stoppage time.
But Tito Tebaldi and Ian McKinley kicked the Italian side clear after the break to notch only their third win of the campaign.
In the other match on Saturday, Glasgow Warriors survived the sending off of Tim Swinson in the 66th minute for leading with the shoulder to beat Connacht 35-24; Corey Flynn, Ali Price and Sean Lamont the try-scorers for the home team.
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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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