LEINSTER RUN RIOT AT RDS —
DAN LEAVY made his long-awaited comeback in Leinster’s facile Pro14 win over Zebre at the RDS last night.
For his first appearance since suffering a multi-ligament knee injury in the Champions Cup quarter-final against Ulster back in March 2019, the Ireland flanker was sent on for the final half-hour and narrowly missed out on a late try.
There was a first try for Dan Sheehan, one of Leinster’s four debutants, and a second for Tommy O’Brien as the hosts cantered into a 28-3 half-time lead.
Michael Bent and Dave Kearney also crossed as Zebre had a lone Paolo Pescetto penalty.
They did touch down through Michelangelo Biondelli, but Harry Byrne landed all nine conversions as Sheehan, Josh Murphy, Ciaran Parker, O’Brien and Scott Penny shared the rest of Leinster’s tries.
Handling errors blighted the early exchanges, while Zebre lost ex-Leinster lock Ian Nagle to a head i njury in j ust the first minute.
Leinster scored from their first trip to the visitors’ 22, captain Rhys Ruddock to the fore as good work by the forwards ended with prop Bent piling over.
Young fly-half Byrne converted and also added the extras to Leinster’s second try in the 19th minute. The Zebre lineout malfunctioned close to their own line, allowing 22-year-old hooker Sheehan to gather at the rear and finish smartly.
Pescetto replied with a wellstruck penalty from distance for 14-3, but Leinster were warming to their task.
A clever wraparound off a maul saw Sheehan feed back inside for winger Kearney to push the lead out to 18 points.
The Italians left space around the side of a ruck in the 36th minute, allowing Luke McGrath to have a cut and lay off for the onrushing O’Brien to raid in behind the posts.
Man- of- the- match Sheehan powered over just a couple of minutes into the second half. With talismanic No8 Jimmy Tuivati also forced off, injury-hit Zebre battled on and were lifted by Marco Manfredi’s turnover penalty.
At this point Leo Cullen sent on Parker for his debut in blue and Dan Leavy appeared for the first time in almost 19 months.
CiaranF raw ley’ s clever foot work paved the way for flanker Murphy togo over from close range, and right on the hour mark, loan signing Parker proved unstoppable from fellow replacement Hugh O’Sullivan’s flat pass.
Two slick kicks from replacements Josh Renton and Antonio Rizzi unlocked the home defence for winger Biondelli’s 66th-minute effort.
Leavy was involved in some excellent handling which set up O’Brien’s second of the night, and flanker Penny enjoyed a 30-metre run-in with five minutes remaining.
Then, Scott Penny’s in-to- out line on to Byrne’s simple pass was too much for a deflated defence and it looked like the perfect end to the evening when Leavy’s work rate looked to have secured him a try on his return, only for the officials to overrule it.
Devin Toner was making his 250th appearance for Leinster, while Dave Kearney made it 150 on his return from injury. LEINSTER: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, L Turner, C Frawley (M Silvester 66), D Kearney; H Byrne, L McGrath (H O’Sullivan 56); P Dooley (M Milne 52), D Sheehan (J Tracy 52), M Bent (C Parker 52); D Toner (J Dunne 56), R Molony; J Murphy (S Fardy 71), S Penny, R Ruddock (capt) (D Leavy 52). Scorers – Tries: Bent, Sheehan 2, Kearney, T O’Brien 2, Murphy, Parker, Penny. Cons: H Byrne 9. ZEBRE: M Biondelli; P Bruno, T Boni (capt), E Lucchin, J Elliot; P Pescetto (A Rizzi 51), N Casillo (J Renton 51); P Buonfiglio (A Lovotti 51), M Manfredi (O Fabiani 51), A Tarus (M Nocera HT); M Kearney, I Nagle (L Krumov 1); L Masselli, R Giammarioli, J Tuivaiti (S Ortis 22). Scorers – Tries: Biondelli. Pens: Pescetto. Referee: C Evans (WRU).