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Rampant Leinster book home semi-final
By Ben Spratt
Defending champions Leinster secured a home semi-final in the Pro14 with a comfortable 19-7 defeat of the Cheetahs.
The Irish side moved a massive 26 points clear at the top of Conference B in Friday's only match at the RDS Arena, ensuring they will have home advantage in the play-offs.
Ox Nche was shown a yellow card in the 10th minute and Leinster immediately capitalised, with Conor O'Brien bursting through to break the deadlock.
But five minutes later, the visitors were level. Rabz Maxwane hared after a kick downfield and finished, with Tian Schoeman cancelling out Ross Byrne's successful conversion.
The flurry of scores kept coming, though, and Adam Byrne marked his 50th Leinster appearance by touching down in the right corner to give the hosts a half-time lead.
And Cheetahs did not trouble the scoreline again, as Rory O'Loughlin stretched the hosts' advantage and then Ross Byrne's second accurate kick set up a cruise to the finish line.
Full-time! And that win secures a home semi-final in the #GuinnessPRO14 #LEIvCHE #JoinTheRoar pic.twitter.com/AhR4k7tKCx
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) March 1, 2019
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Latest Comments
Everyone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
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