On form with the boot: Fergus McFadden
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Leinster ran six unanswered tries past Cardiff Blues for a crushing 52-9 Pro 12 victory at a blustery RDS arena in Dublin on Friday.
The result sees Leinster storm to the top of the RaboDirect Pro 12 table.
Both sides were without many of their star players. The Blues had 15 senior players unavailable due to international commitments and injuries, whilst the Leinster bench had several Ireland players warming it.
Blues fly-half Ceri Sweeney opened the scoring with an early penalty. Fergus McFadden replied minutes later when he managed to ignore the strong head-wind to slot the penalty.
The home side took the lead when Rhys Ruddock crashed over after the Leisnster forwards' positive ball-carrying had the Blues on the back foot for 16 phases. McFadden's conversion and a successful penalty shortly after the try gave the Irish side a 13-3 lead.
Two Sweeney penalties reduced the Leinster lead to 13-9 going into half-time.
Leinster came out after the break with a real purpose and intent leading to a McFadden penalty and drop-goal. A Nathan White try gave the visitors a 23-9 lead with over half an hour remaining in the game.
Leinster captain Leo Cullen and then the Blues' Richie Rees were sent to the sin-bin. Wave after wave of Leinster forward runners continued to apply pressure on a wilting Blues defence.
Ian Madigan was the beneficiary of the forward dominance to take Leinster into a 33-9 lead.
Two David Kearney tries and a Jonathan Sexton conversion extended the home side's advantage even further to 45-9.
Replacement back rower Leo Auva'a stormed over to inflict more misery on a disappointing Blues team. Sexton's successful conversion was the last action of a convincing win for the Dubliners.
The scorers:
For Leinster:
Tries: Boss, White, Madigan, Kearney 2, Auva'a
Cons: McFadden 3, Sexton 2
Pens: McFadden 3
Drop: McFadden
For Cardiff Blues:
Pens: Sweeney 3
Yellow cards: Cullen (Lienster -54th min); Rees (Cardiff -62nd min)
Leinster: 15 Isa Nacewa, 14 David Kearney, 13 Eoin O'Malley, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Fionn Carr, 10 Ian Madigan, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Sean O'Brien, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 5 Steven Sykes, 4 Leo Cullen (capt), 3 Nathan White, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Mike Ross, 19 Damian Browne, 20 Leo Auva'a, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Jonathan Sexton, 23 Rob Kearney.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Chris Czekaj, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Paul Tito (capt), 4 Cory Hill, 3 Taufaao Filise, 2 Ryan Tyrrell, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Marc Breeze, 17 Nathan Trevett, 18 Sam Hobbs, 19 Macauley Cook, 20 Michael Paterson, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Dafydd Hewitt.
Venue: RDS
Referee: Andrew Macpherson (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Leo Colgan (Ireland), Peter Roche (Ireland)
Television match official: Sean Flannery (Ireland)
Assessor: Tim Aplin (Ireland)
Comments
leinster_goy says...
@leinster_goy: Your comment has been deleted. Please stick to rugby.
@luvleinster: The same goes for you. The comments section is comments about rugby - if you want to swing handbags, go to the forum.
Posted 11:22 05th December 2011
luvleinster says...
@ leinster_goy
ill just throw out wikipedia's meaning of "untermenschen", as you used it, for all the good people who comment on these threads...
"Untermenschen is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians".
You've always come across as a dick but this is something else
Posted 20:53 04th December 2011
luvleinster says...
@ leinster_goy
i was in fact pointing out to the author of the above article that leinster is a province, not dublin as he put in his closing sentence. if i wanted to comment to you, would i not begin my post with @ leinster guy like everyone else here? your diatribe is an indication of all that is wrong about rugby "fans" in your neck of the woods though thankfully your ilk are a dying breed. keep your rants to youself and your privliged brethern, i really dont care for you or what you have to say
Posted 20:23 04th December 2011
leinster_goy says...
@luvleinster
oh my god, you're right. you've ruthlessly exposed my latent Dublin snobbery and prejudices against country folk. all this time i've been in denial, but now i can show my true colours...seriously, somebody tell those boggers like sean o'brien, shane horgan and rob kearney to go to the "fairm" where they belong. leinster is only for good upstanding dubs like me and drico and sexto who speak with a nice dublin lilt. everyone who lives outside D4 are oiks and peasants. luvleinster, are you a bogger? i bet you are. i bet you spend your days wallowing in the muck and munching on corn seeds like worzel gummidge. go back to the bog with all the other untermenschen. silly peasant
anyway: good work, keep it up. i believe it was oscar wilde (a dubliner like myself) who said its better to be talked about than to not be talked about, so if i'm inducing unprovoked digs like yours without any effort on my part, i should probably take it as a compliment
Posted 12:29 04th December 2011
Luvleinster says...
One more thing. Leinster is a province, not Dublin. There is plenty of support outside the capital, the days of Leinster goys dominating the terraces are gone.
Posted 23:14 03rd December 2011
Luvleinster says...
Great win. Looking good for heineken number 3!!! Madigan again looks a quality operator, I can see sexton moving to 12 with madigan at 10 at some stage in the future. His only let down is place kicking bur johnny/ferg have that covered. Thought Cronin had a big impact when he came on, moving from Connacht has done him no harm! Two quality hookers and a mean looking front row will help us no end. Agree we look (relatively) weak in the second row but toner seems to be getting his ***** together this season and I've heard good things about this Sykes fella so will see how that goes. Younger Kearney looked good, as did Carr when he got going. Ruddock would be a first teamer on most other european teams, glad to see him have another good un. Would like to see dominic Ryan start a few a 7 over Jennings (think he's injured?), great prospect for leinster and ireland, a real no. 7. Mr Schmidt is building a legacy of greatness here, watch out Toulouse! All in all, things are looking pretty good
Posted 23:08 03rd December 2011
ciaran1792 says...
I taught that Dave Kearney two tries were good but im very impressed with leinster even without O'Driscoll. O'Malley is growing into the 13 jersey more and more this could be dangerous for BOD. great news for Ireland with the emergence of a new 13 and Richardt Strauss will be Irish qualified in 2012. :)
Posted 15:44 03rd December 2011
tombomb says...
cardiff were smashed no better word to describe it. but it annoys me that the welsh regions best player's are whit the national squad not good for the league at all! but doesn't leinster's strength in depth look very impressive just look at the back row just crazy i think shane jenning's is the weak link in the team tho i would like to see this backrow 8.sean o'brien 7.jamie heaslip 6.leo auva'a wow! but it has to be said that leinster's weakness is the 2nd row but it's not a major worry because they're still better player's than what most team's have
Posted 01:26 03rd December 2011
papachinzo says...
Cardiff we're missing 6 starters, Leinster we're missing 10. No excuses from the Welsh men... Leinster deserved their Field day.
Posted 22:51 02nd December 2011
leinster_goy says...
smashy smashy. nice brace from kearns the younger too. shaping up nicely for the bath double header
Posted 22:33 02nd December 2011