Late surge earns Leinster a draw

LEINSTER stopped the Scarlets from going to the top of the Magners League as they staged an amazing fight-back in the final 10 minutes.

Having slipped 17-5 behind when Gareth Maule crossed with 17 minutes left to play, it looked as though the Dubliners were going to lose for the second week in a row in Wales.

But just as the home fans were getting ready to celebrate leapfrogging Munster at the top of the table, Fergus McFadden weaved his way over for a try and then Jonny Sexton performed one of his midfield run-arounds to create an overlap for Shane Horgan to score.

That left Sexton with the task of hitting the mark with a regulation conversion attempt to level the scores. Ordinarily it would have been something he could have done with his eyes closed, but having missed two penalties and two conversions up to that stage, it was a big task.

The Irish out-half kept his cool to level the scores, and then had a chance to kick for glory in the last move of the match. The home number eight Ben Morgan had given Leinster a chance to snatch an almost impossible victory when he knocked on at the base of a scrum in front of his posts on the 22.

Leinster got the put-in, Sean O’Brien drove on to gain a few more precious yards and then Eoin Reddan fired the ball back to his half-back partner to try to win the game. It never quite got to that stage, however, as Sexton dropped the pass and the game ended all square.

The Scarlets are certainly a tougher nut to crack this season than last, when they finished one off the bottom of the league with only 29 points. Coming into this game they had already topped that tally and picked up one more win with six.

The atrocious weather at the start of the game meant there were plenty of errors and plenty of kicking. The slipping and sliding began early on and it was just as well that Horgan was able to slide alongside Morgan Stoddart in the first minute as the home wing raced onto a grub kick through by Dan Newton.

Referee Nigel Owens went to the TMO for his view and after a full minute he gave the visitors the benefit of the doubt, and ruled a 22 drop-out. It didn’t take long, though, for the Scarlets to take the lead when Rhys Priestland knocked over a penalty from 35 metres after a ruck offence.

The Scarlets may be the highest try scorers in the Magners League this season, but they put boot to ball more often than not in the first quarter and found all their attacking forays floundering on some water-tight Leinster defence.

Sexton forced his opposite number to concede a five-metre scrum after Regan King had uncharacteristically thrown a wild pass and the position that created ultimately led to the opening try from Eoin O’Malley.

It was a case of the old one-two from the training ground as Sexton cross-kicked inch perfectly to the right wing to considerably embarrass the home defensive line, and give Horgan the chance to regain possession and throw an overhead pass to the supporting O’Malley who crossed wide out.

The game descended into a bit of a dog-fight for the rest of the half, with Owens forced to issue a general warning to both teams after a free-for-all on halfway.

Priestland’s boot gave his side a 9-5 interval lead and then he extended the gap to seven points with a fourth success to break through the 500 points barrier for his club. The pick and drive close to the ruck adopted by the Scarlets in the second half allowed them to dominate possession and territory.

Leinster managed to weather the early storm, but it didn’t help that Sexton followed up his first-half conversion miss with an inexcusable penalty fluff off the home 22 and then Ruddock went to the sin-bin.

Maule crossed for the home side, but then came the late rally from Leinster and an unlikely draw.

Scorers for Scarlets: G Maule try; R Priestland 4 pens.

Leinster scorers E O’Malley, F McFadden, S Horgan try each; J Sexton con.

SCARLETS: D Newton; M Stoddart, G Maule, R King, J Aluwa; R Priestland, T Knoyle; P John, K Owens, P Edwards, D Welch, D Day, J Turnbull, J Edwards, D Lyons (capt).

Replacements: R Jones for Newton (56), S Williams for Maule (78), M Roberts for Noyle (66), D Manu for P Edwards (30), R McCusker for J Edwards (53), B Morgan for Lyons (66).

LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, E O’Malley, G D’Arcy, F McFadden; J Sexton, E Reddan; H van der Merwe, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen (capt), D Toner, R Ruddock, D Ryan, S O’Brien.

Replacements: C Newland for Ross (66), N Hines for Cullen (51), S Jennings for D Ryan (51).

Referee: N Owens (WRU)