Dead-eyed O’Meara punishes Borders

Borders 21 Leinster 26

The Scots literally paid the penalty as dead-eyed O’Meara punished the sloppy home side by firing over seven successful penalties.

The only consolation for the Borders was a brace of touchdowns from centre Jono Stuart.

After O’Meara’s first trio of kicks, Stuart reduced the deficit by driving over in the corner on the stroke of half-time following a feed from Chris Cusiter.

And hopes of a rare home win were raised on the restart when Stuart conjured up a carbon copy of his first score as Leinster showed signs of wilting.

But on-song O’Meara kept the visitors in touch with another penalty before the Leinster men reclaimed the lead through an Aidan Kearney try.

O’Meara slotted another three penalties to open up a 10-point gap before Campbell Feather notched a consolation try deep in injury-time.

BORDERS: Morton, MacRae, Stuart, Utterson, Turnbull, Laidlaw, Cusiter, Todd, Ford, Graham, MacLeod, Stewart, Feather, T. Walker, Kane.

Borders scorers: Tries: Stuart 2, Feather. Pens: Morton, MacRae.

LEINSTER: D’arcy, McWeeney, Downey, Quinlan, Brown, Leek, O’Meara, E. Byrne, G. Hickie, Coyle, Kearney, Gissing, Breslin, Dillon, Jennings.

Leinster scorers : Tries: Kearney. Pens: O’Meara 7.