Leinster 45
Scarlets 9
Sean Farrell reports from the RDS
LEINSTER COMPLETED A 100% return from their Six Nations-period Pro12 games with a seven-try win over Scarlets.
The Welsh outfit had come into this fixture in form and fourth place in the league after an away victory over Munster. But after sticking close to Leinster for the first half, they were shaken off by clinical cross-field kicks from Ross Byrne and 26 points in the 20 minutes after half-time.
Leo Cullen’s decision to play both of his 21-year-old out-half options in the back-line was richly rewarded as the number 10 pulled the strings superbly in the second half while Joey Carbery ran in two tries as a fullback.
The inclement weather we expected to blight this as a spectacle was mercifully absent at kick-off, but by half-time a fine wet film was drifting across the RDS pitch. Fortunately for Leinster, they had the lead and two tries on the board at that stage.
Cullen’s men showed the confidence of a side who were making a habit of scoring in and around 40 points. While Dan Jones was happy to take the early penalty, tonight’s captain Richardt Strauss wanted to do damage via the scrum and passed up a straightforward penalty in favour of the set-piece. It paid dividends, Luke McGrath sniping right around the solid foundations and muscling his way over for a ninth minute try.
Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
McGrath was soon holding off another would-be tackler and grounding another try. The scrum-half managed to charge down a Jones clearance kick and held off the out-half’s attempt to limit the damage.
Though he was unable to stop McGrath with his arms, Jones did manage to keep his side in the game with his boot, kicking penalties to ensure the deficit was just 12 – 9 at the half-time interval.
In truth, the visitors’ position ought to have been far stronger. Wayne Pivac’s men dominated the second quarter of the game and created an overlap worthy of a try – only for Tom Williams to spill the ball when the try-line was begging to be crossed.
Leinster would not put themselves in that position again. They emerged for the second half utterly re-focused; their line-speed and tackling had urgency, they carried with anger and once Fergus McFadden brilliantly plucked a cross-field kick out of the air, they pulled clear on the scoreboard.
Ross Byrne celebrates Rhys Ruddock’s try. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
Rhys Ruddock, having put in a solid shift in the first half, drove over a deserved try. Three of Leinster’s four tries in the 20 minutes after the break came from Byrne’s kicking, but he showed his handling skills to skip a pass wide right to allow Carbery run in his first of the evening.
Along with Ross Byrne’s accuracy, the injection of electricity provided by Adam Byrne in one-on-one situations made the tactic work a treat. Twice the Kildare man was given the chance to terrorise DTH van der Merwe, and terrorise he did; jinking left and right before making a cut. Though he was caught both times, but both times he popped the ball up for a willing try-scorer – first Carbery, and then prop Ed Byrne, returning from 28 long months out injured.
Jamison Gibson-Park completed the rout with a late score in the corner, but the contest was over and Leinster safely heading back to the top of the table with 20 minutes on the clock. That left enough time and space for Nigel Owens to issue a yellow card to a ball-boy who managed to hit the referee in his haste to get the pill back in play.