Leinster: Not done yet
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A 33-14 bonus-point victory over the Scarlets at the RDS on Saturday kept Leinster in the hunt for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.
The reigning champions will now turn their attention to Sandy Park, where they must bag another full house against Exeter next week to be sure of keeping their title defence hopes alive.
Tries from Cian Healy, Shane Jennings and Luke Fitzgerald helped the hosts to a 19-11 lead at half time before Rob Kearney grabbed the all-important fourth try shortly after the restart.
Scarlets full-back Liam Williams scored a first-half try and a drop-goal to keep his team in touch at the interval, but the visitors never realistically threatened to stop a pumped-up Leinster side from getting the job done.
Ian Madigan scored a fifth try in the dying minutes as Leinster went in search of boosting their tournament try-count, which could be crucial in deciding who makes the final cut.
Aled Thomas's early penalty put Scarlets in front, but Leinster bounced back and took the lead on eight minutes when, following wave after wave of ferocious attack, Healy was able to burrow over from short range.
Jonathan Sexton added the conversion and, after Scarlets had narrowed the gap to a single point with a Williams drop-goal, the hosts struck twice more before half-time.
Jennings was over on 24 minutes following great work at the ruck and, though Sexton was wide with the extras, he was on target when Fitzgerald crashed over in the corner after the ball was worked left through the hands.
Scarlets had been left shell-shocked, though they were able to regroup and cross for the final points of the half when an unmarked Liam Williams snapped up a clever cross-field kick to dive over in the right corner.
Leinster were quick out of the blocks in the second half and they got their rewards when Kearney crossed following good work from Jamie Heaslip.
The hosts chased further points, but it was the visitors who closed the gap just before the hour courtesy of a Thomas penalty.
Leinster continued to rally, however, and they got their rewards in the closing minutes when Madigan darted over, before converting his own try with a drop-goal to bring the scoring to a close.
The scorers:
For Leinster:
Tries: Healy, Jennings, Fitzgerald, Kearney, Madigan
Cons: Sexton 3, Madigan
For Scarlets:
Try: L. Williams
Pens: Thomas 2
Drop: L. Williams
Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Isa Nacewa, 13 Fergus McFadden, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Sean O'Brien, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Aaron Dundon, 17 Heinke Van der Merwe, 18 Michael Bent, 19 Tom Denton, 20 Rhys Ruddock, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Brian O'Driscoll.
Scarlets: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Andy Fenby, 13 Gareth Maule, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Kristian Phillips, 10 Aled Thomas, 9 Tavis Knoyle, 8 Kieran Murphy, 7 Josh Turnbull, 6 Rob McCusker (capt) 5 Richard Kelly, 4 George Earle, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Phil John.
Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Rhodri Jones, 18 Samson Lee, 19 Johan Synman, 20 Sione Timani, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Jonathan Davies, 23 Adam Warren.
Venue: RDS
Referee: Jerome Garces (France)
Comments
shrimps says...
Realised the Luke fitzgerald hight tackle was given. At least he's not that bad!
Posted 20:20 13th January 2013
shrimps says...
absolutely awful refereeing in this game. leinster should feel very hard done by. the breakdown was a joke with scarlets flopping all over every ruck they could get numbers to and constantly holding on to the tackled player, not rolling away, hands blatantly on the ball with the refereeing just telling them to release ocassionally and letting it go every single time. the leinster players did well with all the illegal play here but their back play was limited as a result. scarlets were offside often. there were numerous textbook high tackles straight in front of the ref. luke fitzgerald suffered one such textbook high tackle - he is just back from a neck injury and that is exactly why those tackles are not allowed!! where was the penalty? leinster players were repeatedly being taken out off the ball with many of them occuring right in front of the ref and the linesmen never intervening. he missed some obvious knock ons from scarlets yet seemed to catch the slightest knockons from leinster. he also ignored two textbook intentional knockons from scarlets. there were some awful forward passes from leinster he missed and one really obvious ones from scarlets and one not so obvious. he was in line with about half of them. he still penalised scarlets a huge number of times including many right on their tryline. where were the bloody cards?
leinster seem to be regaining their form but we werent allowed to see more of their great play because of this performace by the referee. i know they say you have to play the referee but cheating at every single phase of the game and being allowed to get away with it is not what that means. that performance was not rugby.
i feel sorry for the state of welsh rugby, but they should be embarrased by this performance, as should the referee, Garces. if the rest of the hcup cames are refereed like this, we better start watchin s15. what a joke
Posted 13:53 13th January 2013
3in4 says...
By the way, it should be said that we would have put about 60 on the board if Garces wasn't clearly blind. We already know that the Welsh sides are little more than gangs of ruthlessly despicable, disgusting cheaters, but the amount of stuff the Scarlets got away with last night was shocking. Standing offside at every ruck, off their feet, holding on (this strangely resulted in a number of penalties against Leinster in the 1st half) deliberate knock ons, a number of off-the-ball hits (McFadden taken out twice), high tackles, not to mention a few dangerous tip tackles went completely unnoticed. And not one single yellow card - unbelievable. We should have had at least a 3 man advantage by the end of the game.
Posted 12:18 13th January 2013
3in4 says...
Agree with the 2 posters directly below. Fitzgerald showed last night that he's a class act but he'll never get back into the Ireland side as long as Kidney and his love-child Earls are around.
Posted 11:56 13th January 2013
Cabhan says...
the_side_step, completely agree about Heaslip. He does serious ground work that seems to be ignored. He was great going forward last night and looked explosive off the scrum. That's my one criticism of him lately, he doesn't seem to attack off the scrum enough.
Fitzgerald was really awesome. Thought Kearney looked very good too for someone only just returning.
Healy was outstanding. He must have known he was coming off at HT and just emptied the tank the first half. Brilliant offload for one of the scores.
Looks like they'll need a bp win next week to stand a chance of going through. Would be great to see Toulon beat Montp, but I have serious doubts about that. My guess is Munster finish on 20 pts but qualify with superior tries scored.
Posted 10:52 13th January 2013
the_side_step says...
Fitzy was unreal!! id say he has an international agenda but fairness were its due if he plays like that id say he will be pushing for his place back with the Ireland squad!! Although in typical kidney fashion he probably wont get a look in!! Everyone in that leinster team played their hearts out! Jamie Heaslip again was phenomenal(bar one drop ball) for too long his work off the ball seems to go unnoticed! he plays around O'Brien and does the work a seven should so that Seany can do what he does best!! I would say most of the Scarles pack will have nightmares of the man tonight!! Very impressed by Ruddock tonight also if they could find a place for him possibly in the second row he could become something special!! Possibly too much talent right now in the back row for him. As for Ole Gunner Madigan!! He is simply born to score tries the hard work was done but once again he shows what sits in waiting!! I really hoe the boys get through because back at full strength they can push their way back up thereand for the sake of the lions there are a lot of boys there that need to be playing top class rugby in april and may!! Credit also to that Scarlets number 6 id say even brian lima would be impressed with some of the hits he put in tonight!! All in all one of the most entertaining rugby matches ive seen in a while!!
Posted 04:45 13th January 2013
scrumdog says...
Leinster can do it....another game for the trio under the belt...think Exeter will get blown away! Leinster being thisclose to the quarters will be a juggernaut!
Posted 01:03 13th January 2013
melkdave says...
I was hoping to watch a game ,but Scarlets again where just terrible,Just what has happwened to the welsh clubs this season ,they are all just terrible.None of them worthy so far of a HC place imo.That said ill take nothing away from Leinster ,they had an objective and played to achive it,that they achived it so easily is the big concern,as they wherent that good imo.Anyhow sets up abig match against Exeter next week,who will be smarting .After being toally crushed again by Clearmont.Perhaps they can show the welsh just how your supposed to respond to being thrashed,the week before.
Posted 22:09 12th January 2013
Iyhel says...
Well in France we say "never sell the bear's fur before you've actually killed it"... Looks like the beast is still alive!
Posted 21:53 12th January 2013
leinster_goy says...
job done, as the fella said. i was very impressed with our pace and power in the first 50 mins of the match - something that has been sadly absent for too much of this season. Fitzy was impressive; Church = PURE MONST
can we do it next week? i have nagging doubts about it, to be honest. even if we do, other permutations needs to go our way. munster losing tomorrow and ospreys beating leicester by more than 7 would be a good start. ultimately, toulon need to actually turn up in montpellier and win. then we have a real chance
Posted 20:23 12th January 2013