BREWING UP A STORM’
South Africa trip ‘mixed’ for Leo despite defeats
LEINSTER, having gambled on sending a seconds/thirds string to South Africa for two games and losing twice, have dropped to second place in the URC table.
But that’s not necessarily the full picture as new leaders Glasgow, who posted nine points over the equivalent fortnight to take a four-point lead, travel to South Africa to face Bulls and Lions over the next two weeks.
Leinster finish with Ospreys at home, Ulster in Belfast and Connacht at home and are hopeful they can profit from any Scottish slip-up.
Simply Leo Cullen’s decision was not to send any of the first XV that will contest the European semi-final against Northampton at Croke Park next Saturday to South Africa; those likely to make the bench were flown home early last week.
“It is a bit mixed isn’t it?” said Cullen (right) of the 42-12 defeat at Stormers that added to the previous week’s 44-12 defeat at Lions.
“There is some accuracy parts, we give away some cheap scores such as the first one, having a good attacking position, a good line-out, a dropped pass and Stormers with the speed that they have they go the length of the field and score under the posts.
“That was just a bit of a cheap lead for them so unfortunately we never had any real scoreboard pressure on them. We get down there a few times, misfire, misfire again just before halftime which leads to a try eventually.
Pressure
“So there are the two tries they have in the first-half and we were a little bit slow to get set at the start of the second-half and they score again but I thought we had a really good 20/30 minute period in the game where we put a lot of pressure on them.
“We had some good position in the field, we got in for a couple of good tries and there is lots of fight and intent - that’s probably the bit that I am most interested in seeing from the group that we have.
Munster produced a second bonus-point win in South Africa in two weeks as following on from defeating Bulls in Pretoria last week they beat Lions in Johannesburg, 33-13, on Saturday.
Jack O’Donoghue, a penalty try and Shane Daly saw the
Reds chasing a bonus point for almost halfhour, Gavin Coombes finally crossing with ninety-seconds left on the clock.
That’s six straight wins for the Reds who, third-placed, moved to within a point of second-placed Leinster with three league-proper games to come. Connacht took a long time to subdue Dragons in Newport, the game balanced at 27-apiece when the Welsh side’s Ben Carter was red carded for a 69th minute high tackle; Dylan Tierney scored the key try a minute later as the westerners came away 2734 winners.
Pete Wilkins’ side captured five league points from the encounter and moved to up to sixth although there may have been a price as JJ Hanrahan was stretchered off in the second-half.
Ulster had an crucial 38-34 win over Benetton on Friday, picking up five points and moving up into the play-offs.