Leinster rue moments of madness

Ospreys 19 Leinster 15

Yellow cards to lock Ed O’Donoghue and outside half Ian Madigan in the space of three minutes, interspersed by a dump tackle from Jason Harris-Wright, which conceded the penalty that led to Madigan’s departure, contrived to turn a game that had swung the way of the visitors on its head.

Having fallen behind a minute after the break to a fourth penalty from home outside half Dan Biggar, Leinster edged back in front two minutes later thanks to a second moment of magic from Isa Nacewa. The Fijian full back had used his strength to create a try for Andrew Conway in the first-half and then showed his craft and cunning to a grab a vital second five pointer.

That score took his contribution up to 10 points in his side’s 15 and where he and the other senior pros, Leo Cullen, Stephen Keogh, Shane Jennings and Shane Horgan led, so the youngsters followed.

The last time these two teams had met, the Magners League title was on the line at the RDS and it was the Ospreys who came out on top to make it a gloomy end to the season in Dublin.

That meant the title left Ireland following Munster’s triumph a year earlier, but both sides had struggled this season to keep up with the fast pace set by the top two teams in red, Munster and the Scarlets.

With both of last season’s Grand Finalists outside the top four Play-Off zone this was a crucial battle, even if it was relegated to a second string affair because of the November internationals.

There were only three players on each side who had started at the RDS six months ago – Biggar, Marty Holah and Jerry Collins for the home side and Nacewa, Horgan and Jennings for the visitors – and both teams were missing a dozen or more internationals.

But that didn’t detract from a game that was highly competitive from start to finish – the Ospreys had to defend a line-out 10 metres from their line in the dying seconds to hang on to victory – and the players on both sides made light of the fact it was four degrees below zero.

Irish referee David Wilkinson sent Ospreys prop Duncan Jones to the sin-bin in the first-half for going off his feet at a ruck and then turned on the Leinster players at the same area after the break.

O’Donoghue was binned for an infringement at a ruck on the home 22, while Madigan failed to roll away as the home eight went for the jugular with a driving line-out after that Harris-Wright penalty.

With a two player advantage, and massive superiority at the scrum in any case, it was no surprise that acting skipper Jerry Collins called for three successive scrums when Wilkinson awarded his side penalties five metres out. A penalty try became inevitable and Biggar’s conversion sealed the win.

The Ospreys were therefore able to leapfrog Leinster and move into fifth place in the table, while the Dubliners will have to return to Wales to face the high flying Scarlets in five days time in another crucial fixture.

Scorers: Ospreys: Try: Penalty Try; Con: D Biggar; Pens; D Biggar 4.

Leinster: Tries: A Conway, I Nacewa; Con: I Nacewa; pen: I Nacewa.

OSPREYS: B Davies (T Isaacs, 47); G Owen, S Parker, A Beck, R Fussell; D Biggar, R Webb (J Nutbrown, 47); D Jones, R Hibbard, C Mitchell, I Gough, I Evans (J Goode, 65), J Tipuric (C Griffiths 22-28), J Collins (capt, T Smith, 65), M Holah.

LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, E O’Malley, F McFadden, A Conway (D Kearney, 47); I Madigan, I Boss; H van der Merwe, J Harris-Wright, C Newland (M Ross, H-T), L Cullen (capt), E O’Donoghue, D Ryan (R Ruddock, 59), S Keogh, S Jennings.

Referee: David Wilkinson (Ireland)

Attendance: 4,122