Leinster quench the Dragons’ fire with an impressive showing
LEINSTER secured their ninth win from 10 Guinness PRO14 Conference B games this season by hammering the Dragons.
Wing Dave Kearney and centre Jimmy O’Brien both grabbed two of their side’s nine tries, with the others coming via flanker Scott Penny, captain and lock Scott Fardy, number eight Caerlan Doris, full-back Hugo Keenan and replacement hooker Bryan Byrne.
Fly-half Ross Byrne kicked five conversions and replacement Ciaran Frawley added two more against the hosts, who got a solitary second-half try from scrumhalf Rhodri Williams, with fly-half Jason Tovey converting and kicking a penalty.
Leinster were 14-0 up before the Dragons could blink. A neat Ross Byrne cross-kick to the left corner gave Kearney a simple catch and fall try in the corner.
Minutes later, Penny was at the bottom of a ruck that crossed the home line but a try was ruled out.
Dragons lock Lewis Evans was sin-binned during that attack.
Penny made up for his miss as he drove over from an attacking lineout. Ross Byrne added the extras to both tries.
Tovey put the Dragons on the board with a 25 metre penalty but Leinster added a third try as scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park sent a superb pass wide for Fardy to rumble in.
Leinster exploited the wide area again straight after the restart as the Ross Byrne-Kearney combination created a mirror image of the winger’s first try and gave the champs a bonus point.
The Dragons, who had brought on Welsh internationals Leon Brown and Cory Hill to the front five at half-time, rallied and a neat move involving Keddie and prop Ryan Bevington sent Williams sprinting over. Tovey converted.
From then, though, Leinster dominated. A try was ruled out for a knock-on but Doris exploited more weak tackling for a try near the posts, while, just after the hour, Keenan ran through a midfield gap from 10 metres out to score near the posts. Ross Byrne converted.
Three more tries, from Keenan, Bryan Byrne and O’Brien, one converted by Ross Byrne and one from Frawley, took Leinster to 52-10, the same score that they beat the Dragons by in Dublin on September 15.
O’Brien rounded off the match with his second, converted by Frawley, meaning Leinster have now scored 111 points against the Dragons in their two league meetings this season. DRAGONS: J Williams, J Rosser (A Warren 56), T Morgan, J Sage, H Amos, J Tovey (A Robson 66), R Williams (T Knoyle 61), R Bevington (A Jarvis 72), R Hibbard (E Dee 47), L Fairbrother (L Brown 40), R Landman, L Evans (C Hill, 40), H Keddie (R Moriarty 47), A Wainwright, O Griffiths. Scorers: Try: R Williams. Con: J Tovey Pen: J Tovey. LEINSTER: H Keenan, A Byrne, J O’Brien, C O’Brien, D Kearney (T Daly 64), R Byrne (C Frawley 70), J Gibson-Park (P Patterson 66), E Byrne (P Dooley 52), J Tracy (B Bryne 52), M Bent (A Porter 48), R Molony, S Fardy (captain), J Murphy (M Deegan 52), S Penny (M Kearney 62), C Doris. Scorers: Tries: D Kearney (2), Penny, Fardy, Doris, Keenan, B Byrne, J O’Brien (2). Cons: R Byrne (5), C Frawley (2). Referee: Lloyd Linton (Scotland).