Leinster Rugby

When Leinster moved the ball from a smooth lineout, Marius Louw shook the ball free from Max Deegan's grasp. A scrum penalty, given against Andrew Porter, saw ...

Clever work from O’Brien earned a Leinster lineout inside the 22. Leinster needed to dig deep. Sensing the nature of the conditions, the ball was increasingly put to flight and Porter was spotted lifting a leg at a maul to invite pressure from the Sharks lineout. It was Leinster’s turn to move the maul, giving up ground when McCarthy’s launch kick led to another penalty and more maul pressure where Barron was binned for a side entry to reduce Leinster to 13 men. Leo Cullen’s men looked to keep the ball in hand, O’Brien chasing Byrne’s kick, snagging Hendrikse and claiming a penalty on the floor for Frawley to slot the points in the 43rd minute. Leinster’s desire to move the ball was snapped by Makazole Mapimpi’s pick of the pass to rush in under the posts, Bosch converting to tie the scores at the end of the quarter.

The Sharks denied Leinster an opportunity to wrap up top spot in the United Rugby Championship with two games to spare in a hard-fought 28-23 win in Durban. Leo ...

Bosch converted despite the ball persistently slipping from the tee due to the weather, making it 21-20. Frawley kicked a penalty early in the second half as the rain grew heavier but the Sharks had the lead after Mbonambi touched down from the back of a driving maul. The Sharks kicked on in the second half with scores from Bongi Mbonambi and Phepsi Buthelezi as Leinster paid the price for a pair of yellow cards.

The Sharks were made to toil in the Durban rain to claim a vital bonus-point victory over a second-string Leinster side at Kings Park on Saturday night.

Thankfully for the hosts, their scrum and maul fired on all cylinders, allowing them to put Leinster under a mountain of pressure and lose a couple of players to yellow cards in the second half. However, to their immense credit, Leinster continued fighting and put themselves back on top through centre Ciarán Frawley’s third successful penalty of the game. Even when Buthelezi forced his way over from a five-metre scrum, the Sharks still had to scrap to win the game as Leinster hit back in the final 10 minutes and spent the closing stages of the match camped on the Sharks tryline.

It's fair to say that while 'it's a hard place to go' is one of most used and inaccurate lines in rugby, in South Africa it's on the money.

It remains to be seen how many of this group get to lace a boot when the knockouts arrive, but either way all will be the better for this experience. In the end it was the Sharks who were down a man as the game descended to near farce, but for Leo Cullen’s gaggle of greenhorns, the battle scars from struggling for a period with 13 men will be worth the pain. They were trumped by the Sharks and unusually for Leinster, a losing bonus point was a creditable return.

Niall Lalor was the difference-maker in the 100th Bank of Ireland Metropolitan Cup final at Energia Park on Friday night.

Clontarf: J O’Sullivan, L Carton, T Connolly try each; F O’Dea pen, 3 cons. Still, Terenure were able to show enough composure to squeeze out a penalty for Pender to make it 22-17 in the 65th minute. Terenure aimed to land the knockout blows, Sam Dardis unable to ground the ball over the whitewash and the ‘Tarf forwards on the fringes forcing a penalty. Daniel Hawkshaw’s second rip was retained by Terenure and a lightning raid up the left, sparked by Croke, concluded with a try by Eoghan Doherty, converted by Pender for 19-3 in the 35th minute. The Terenure tails were suddenly up as the passes began to stick and the ruck ball sped up, Cian Croke and Darragh McDonnell eager for touches in the build-up to a second try for Lalor, converted by Conor Pender for 12-3 in the 29th minute. Then, the forwards churned out the heavy metres, motoring a maul all the way to the line where captain Lalor plunged over for 5-3 in the 24th minute.

The province take on the Sharks and the Stormers in South Africa before heading to Welford Road.

We’ll have to focus on what is in front of us here but I definitely think there will be lessons that we can take from these next couple of weeks which will lead into the big one then.” “And one of the lessons from playing those teams seemed to be that playing them home and away was a completely different experience. We managed to beat them quite considerably at home [Leinster beat the Kings 64-7 at the RDS later that season] and away from home it was a really really tough game. “So it was definitely a lesson the last time, how you don’t get drawn into the distractions of being away from home and having your routine on the road for a long period of time. And we’re away from home for two weeks in a row against real quality opposition, so there will be lessons we can hopefully learn for the Leicester game because there are similarities in the challenges that we will face. “There is a great opportunity when we are out here to get closer to each other and spending time in each other’s company.

Five Caolan Dooley penalties and a 76th-minute try from full-back Adam La Grue proved enough for Terenure College, who edged out Lansdowne 20-18 in a cagey semi ...

Greg Hutley hit the post with a drop goal attempt and missed out on a try due to a tremendous cover tackle from Bowen. The ‘Hinch winger saw yellow and also harshly conceded a penalty try. First half tries from Josh Hanlon and George Pringle guided them to a 21-17 first leg victory at UCC. The home defence tightened up thereafter, some loose passing and a crooked lineout letting Con down as their challenge petered out. With support from Ivan Soroka, Donnellan rumbled over in the 53rd minute. 15-6 in arrears, Con managed to answer back on the stroke of half-time.