Two-try O’Brien stakes Irish claim in Leinster romp
O’Brien, playing at number eight, claimed two tries and the man of the match award en route to helping Leinster shoot up into fourth place in the Magners League.
The 23-year-old from Carlow was part of a very balanced and young back-row unit that had the drop on their Ulster counterparts, where Pedrie Wannenburg has appeared to lose his lustre and Robbie Diack was just blown away.
It was up front that Leinster did the damage with a concerted effort from Leo Cullen and his pack winning the battle at the breakdown. Isaac Boss will have finished with a wry smile as he outwitted the player to take his place in the Ulster ranks. Springbok Ruan Pienaar has yet to really sparkle in an Ulster jersey and after a late move to fly-half, was finally hauled off near the end.
Leinster were deserving winners, even though Ulster allowed them to steal two early tries. Leinster appeared to step on the gas at will with Isa Nacewa enjoying his role in the number 15 jersey and Shaun Berne directing operations at fly-half.
Ulster still have a long, long way to go before they can say their season has turned for the good. They had little imagination in the first half, and even less in the second. Once again they were guilty of too many basic errors in the wrong part of the field and inept zig-zagging across the pitch without having the wherewithal to go forward.
Playing with the stiff breeze, Leinster rarely allowed Ulster out of their own half in the opening quarter and soon took advantage of some uneven match-ups which allowed O’Brien to steal in for his two tries.
After Nacewa fluffed a long-range penalty in the second minute, the visitors soon made their mark with a try conjured up out of nowhere in the eighth minute.
Ulster looked to have stemmed a series of drives by Leinster when O’Brien found a yawning gap at a ruck, before taking a superb line to wrong-foot the home defence and romp in close to the posts.
It was the same again 10 minutes later when this time it was scrum-half Boss who put O’Brien through another big hole with only BJ Botha left grasping thin air as the number eight wandered in under the posts. Nacewa converted both and Leinster were well and truly up and running.
Ulster found extreme difficulty in getting out of their own half and were often guilty of putting pressure on themselves with basic handling errors and wrong options.
When Ulster did manage to forage a way upfield fly-half Niall O’Connor floated over a penalty, only for Nacewa to match the effort shortly afterwards.
Ulster began to finally find forward momentum against a very intense Leinster defence. O’Connor again put points on the board for Ulster with his second penalty after good work by Dan Tuohy, who was the pick of the home side’s embattled warriors.
On the run-up to half-time, Nacewa again put 14 points between the sides when he slotted over a penalty after BJ Botha was penalised for dropping a scrum.
Unlike Leinster, it took Ulster nearly 15 minutes to get into their opponents half when they had use of the strong wind. By that time, Nacewa had stretched the lead with his third penalty.
Leinster continued their domination when they scored their third try in the 57th minute. It was inevitable that Leinster would score once they got on a roll in the Ulster red zone, and Shane Horgan was the extra man out wide on the right when the home defence was sucked in.
Nacewa converted; game over. It was now a matter of that bonus-point try. But it was Ulster who actually found the nous from somewhere to string together a slick passing movement to allow Craig Gilroy to sprint in at the corner — his fifth try in three games.
Having turned off the boilers, Leinster allowed Ulster to dominate the final throes of a game but the scoreboard wasn’t troubled again.
Scorers for Ulster: C Gilroy try; N O’Connor con, 2 pens.
Scorers for Leinster: S O’Brien 2 tries; S Horgan try; I Nacewa 3 cons, 3 pens.
ULSTER: A D’Arcy; C Gilroy, N Spence, I Whitten (L Marshall 64), S Danielli; N O’Connor (P Marshall 71), R Pienaar (T Seymour, 76); P McAllister (Young 52), N Brady (Kyriacou 52), BJ Botha (Fitzpatrick 71), J Muller (Capt), D Tuohy, P Wannenburg, C Henry (Faloon 64), R Diack (Barker 58).
LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll (Madigan 65), F McFadden, D Kearney (Conway 65); S Berne, I Boss; H van der Merwe, J Harris-Wright (Dundon 73), M Ross (Newland 76), L Cullen (capt), D Toner, R Ruddock, D Ryan, S O’Brien (B Marshall 73).
Referee: George Clancy (IRFU).
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