Blues cruise as Connacht grind out Cardiff win
URC LEADERS Leinster maintained their place at the top of the table with a 47-18 bonus-point victory over Benetton at the RDS.
Benetton started and finished the first half impressively, with Ignacio Mendy touching down in the first minute and Jacob Umaga tagging a monster penalty onto the winger’s late second try.
That cut Leinster’s lead to 21-18 at the break, but Jason Jenkins bagged their bonus point soon after the restart to add to earlier scores from Scott Penny, Luke McGrath and Liam Turner.
Making it a seven-try triumph in the end, Academy scrum-half Ben Murphy notched his first senior score, and fellow replacement Brian Deeny and captain Penny added late gloss.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will have noted Ross Byrne’s encouraging return from injury. He landed his first four conversion attempts and was solid throughout his 69 minutes on the pitch.
The Italians swiftly showed why they are sitting second.
They worked the ball wide for Mendy to score in the right corner, Umaga also converting.
Leinster applied pressure through their forwards in response, and Penny, supported by Ross Molony, plunged over beside the posts. Byrne’s conversion made it seven-all.
The hosts added a quick-fire second converted try in the 13th minute, with scrum-half McGrath the scorer after a slick offload from Jamie Osborne.
Umaga pulled back three points with a 25th-minute penalty, but a smartly worked try released centre Turner to crash over.
Nonetheless, an injection of pace and quick hands put Mendy over to close the gap again, and Umaga’s booming 59-metre penalty made it a three-point game at the turnaround.
Leinster still needed to shake off their rustiness, and lock Jenkins got them back on track with a 42nd-minute try. Tommy O’Brien’s high fielding was a highlight during the build-up.
The Treviso-based side were making more errors now, and Murphy picked from a 64thminute scrum and neatly nipped over past two defenders.
Sam Prendergast replaced Byrne at out-half and he was all over Leinster’s penultimate try. He provided the assist and conversion for Deeny’s close-range effort, and then Penny drove in low to complete his brace.
Malakai Fekitoa was fortunate to avoid yellow late on for a high hit, but while Umaga was sinbinned for a deliberate knock-on, Leinster misfired with a loose Osborne pass in their last attack.
Meanwhile, Cardiff could not overcome an early red card for centre Rey Lee-Lo as Connacht claimed a 16-12 victory at the Arms Park.
Lee-Lo was dismissed after just 15 minutes by Italian referee Andrea Piardi following a high challenge on Shayne Bolton.
It left the Welsh team with a mountain to climb, but they led until the final quarter before Connacht finally overhauled them. Out-half JJ Hanrahan was the architect of Connacht’s win, kicking three penalties and converting replacement prop Peter Dooley’s try.
Cardiff outscored Connacht on tries, with centre Ben Thomas and Lopeti Timani touching down and No10 Tinus de Beer adding a conversion, but Connacht had just enough in the tank.