Leinster, Munster and Cheetahs claimed wins over Benetton, Glasgow Warriors and Cardiff Blues respectively in Saturday’s PRO14 action.
Benetton 3-31 Leinster
Leinster extended their lead at the top of PRO14 Conference B with a 31-3 bonus-point victory over Benetton at Stadio Comunale di Monigo.
Tries from Adam Byrne, James Tracy, Conor O’Brien, Andrew Porter and Joe Tomane proved too much for the Italian side, who were kept tryless and only had an Antonio Rizzi penalty to show for their efforts.
Leinster took an early fourth-minute lead when Jamison Gibson-Park’s kick in behind was finished off by winger Byrne.
Benetton then had a spell of dominance but could only come away with three points courtesy of Rizzi’s 25th-minute penalty.
The home side were enjoying the overwhelming majority of the possession and territory in the match and were rewarded with their second try on the half-hour mark. It was hooker Tracy who emerged from the pile of bodies at the back of a well worked driving maul. Ross Byrne slotted the conversion as the away side took a 12-3 lead in to the interval.
Benetton did well to hold out at the beginning of the second half but then got themselves in trouble with a crooked lineout throw. The defending champions made the most of the error as youngster Conor O’Brien got his first senior try in a Leinster jersey from the resulting penalty.
In the 58th minute, Leinster had their bonus-point try as the home side’s defence were unable to stop replacement prop Porter as he powered over from close range.
And the cherry was on the top when Tomane became the second player on the day to grab their first try in a Leinster jersey when he powered over four minutes from the end to close out a convincing 31-3 victory.
The scorers:
For Benetton:
Pen: Rizzi
For Leinster:
Tries: A Byrne, Tracy, O’Brien, Porter, Tomane
Cons: R Byrne 3
The teams:
Benetton: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Ratuva Tavuyara, 13 Ignacio Brex, 12 Alberto Sgarbi (c), 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Antonio Rizzi, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Marco Barbini, 7 Michele Lamaro, 6 Giovanni Pettinelli, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Irné Herbst, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Hame Faiva, 1 Derrick Appiah
Replacements: 16 Tomas Baravalle, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Alessandro Zanni, 20 Marco Lazzaroni, 21 Tito Tebaldi, 22 Tommaso Iannone, 23 Angelo Esposito
Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Adam Byrne, 13 Rory O’Loughlin, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Max Deegan, 7 Dan Leavy, 6 Seán O’Brien (c), 5 James Ryan, 4 Scott Fardy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 James Tracy, 1 Jack McGrath
Replacements: 16 Bryan Byrne, 17 Ed Byrne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Rhys Ruddock, 21 Hugh O’Sullivan, 22 Noel Reid, 23 Conor O’Brien
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Assistant referees: Craig Evans (Wales), Andrea Spadoni (Italy)
TMO: Alan Falzone (Italy)
Munster 25-24 Glasgow Warriors
A last-gasp Rory Scannell penalty gave Munster a dramatic 25-24 come-from-behind victory over Glasgow Warriors at Thomond Park on Saturday.
Munster started the brighter of the two sides and drew first blood when Cronin powered his way over from close range with the help of prop partner John Ryan.
However, the Glasgow defence was holding up extremely well in the face of some persistent Munster attacks. Having soaked up the pressure, Glasgow went up the other end and scored through a fine George Horne counter-attacking try.
In the 35th minute, Horne had his second as he gave the visitors the lead for the first time in the match. Nick Grigg ran a lovely line and Horne was on his shoulder to finish off a slick backline move.
Munster had Chris Cloete sent to the sin-bin five minutes after the interval. Glasgow capitalised on their numerical advantage when Fagerson manoeuvred his way over from the base of another dominant scrum from the Glaswegians, who were showing their dominance in this area of the game
The visitors had their fourth in the 59th minute through Pete Horne as brother George this time turned creator with a lovely chip ahead from a penalty advantage.
But Munster refused to lie down and hit back with tries in the 65th and 72nd minute from Alex Wootton and Alby Mathewson respectively to cut the deficit to just two, setting up a tense finale with ten minutes to go.
And with twenty minutes left to go on the clock, Munster won a penalty at the breakdown. Scannell stepped up and coolly slotted a monster 55-metre penalty between the posts to cap off a remarkable turnaround.
The scorers:
For Munster:
Tries: Cronin, Wootton, Mathewson
Cons: Hanrahan, Keatley
Pens: Hanrahan, Scannell
Yellow Card: Cloete
For Glasgow:
Tries: G Horne 2, Fagerson, P Horne
Cons: P Horne, Thomson
The teams:
Munster: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Sammy Arnold, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Keith Earls, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Chris Cloete, 6 Peter O’Mahony (c), 5 Billy Holland, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 James Cronin
Replacements: 16 Kevin O’Byrne, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Fineen Wycherley, 20 Arno Botha, 21 Neil Cronin, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Alex Wootton
Glasgow: 15 Ruaridh Jackson, 14 DTH van der Merwe, 13 Nick Grigg, 12 Sam Johnson, 11 Rory Hughes, 10 Pete Horne, 9 George Horne, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Callum Gibbins (c), 6 Adam Ashe, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Rob Harley, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 2 Grant Stewart, 1 Oli Kebble
Replacements: 16 Kevin Bryce, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 Petrus du Plessis, 19 Greg Peterson, 20 Chris Fusaro, 21 Nick Frisby, 22 Brandon Thomson, 23 Niko Matawalu
Referee: Dan Jones (Wales)
Assistant referees: Chris Busby (Ireland), Elgan WIlliams (Wales)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)
Cheetahs 21-10 Cardiff Blues
The Cheetahs claimed their first win of the season with a 21-10 victory over Cardiff Blues at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
A Shaun Venter try and a Rabz Maxwane brace proved too much for the Blues, who scored through Samu Manoa.
The Cheetahs got off to a good start, grabbing the first try in the eighth minute courtesy of a sniping break from scrum-half Venter, who ran unopposed for 40 metres before finishing. Tian Schoeman made no mistake with the conversion.
Three minutes later, the home side had their second and it came via a piece of individual brilliance from Maxwane, who showed searing pace to chase down and collect his own kick ahead to dot down as Schoeman added the extras again for a 14-0 lead.
Maxwane grabbed his brace on the stroke of half-time. It was unlucky for the visitors, who were camped on the Cheetahs’ try-line, only for the ball to spill loose and for Maxwane to collect and run the length of the field to dot down against the run of play.
Cardiff finally got their first try of the match in the 65th minute when new signing Manoa successfully charged down Schoeman’s kick and dotted down. Steve Shingler’s conversion made it 10-21.
The Cheetahs survived a number of sustained attacks from the visitors in the closing 15 minutes to make sure of an impressive 21-10 victory.
The scorers:
For Cheetahs:
Tries: Venter, Maxwane 2
Cons: Schoeman 3
For Cardiff Blues:
Try: Manoa
Con: Shingler
Pen: Shingler
The teams:
Cheetahs: 15 Malcolm Jaer, 14 Rhyno Smith, 13 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Rabz Maxwane, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Shaun Venter (c), 8 Neil Jordaan, 7 Junior Pokamela, 6 Gerhard Olivier, 5 JP du Preez, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ox Nche
Replacements: 16 Reinach Venter, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Erich de Jager, 19 Sinthu Manjezi, 20 Abongile Nonkontwana, 21 Tian Meyer, 22 Louis Fouche, 23 Nico Lee
Cardiff Blues: 15 Matthew Morgan, 14 Jason Harries, 13 Garyn Smith, 12 Rey Lee-Lo, 11 Aled Summerhill, 10 Steve Shingler, 9 Lloyd Williams (c), 8 Seb Davies, 7 Olly Robinson, 6 Josh Turnbull, 5 Rory Thornton, 4 George Earle, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 Ethan Lewis, 1 Brad Thyer
Replacements: 16 Liam Belcher, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Keiron Assiratti, 19 Samu Manoa, 20 Nick Williams, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Dan Fish, 23 Willis Halaholo
Referee: Lloyd Linton (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Quinton Immelman (South Africa), Ruhan Meiring (South Africa)
TMO: Johan Greeff (South Africa)