Dragons frustrate Leinster

Guinness Pro12: Leinster 14 Gwent Dragons 16: Leinster suffered a setback to their Pro12 play-off aspirations, as Tom Prydie’s 70th-minute penalty at the RDS yesterday meant they finished the weekend outside the league’s top-four spots.

Minus several internationals, Leinster’s prospects were further dented by first-half head injuries to Richardt Strauss, Tom Denton and Noel Reid which forced their withdrawals.

The Dragons took a surprise lead on 11 minutes, when centre Pat Leach broke through for a converted try. A brace of Jimmy Gopperth penalties reduced the deficit to a minimum, but a successful 39th-minute place-kick from Prydie put the visitors 10-6 ahead at the interval.

Leinster seemed to have broken Welsh resistance 10 minutes after the break when Luke Fitzgerald (who earlier replaced Reid) appeared to have grounded for a try. But, in the absence of a TMO, ref Ben Whitehouse awarded a five-metre scrum to Dragons.

After Gopperth and Prydie swapped penalties, Leinster finally hit the front when full-back Dave Kearney touched down in the right-corner on 67 minutes. This looked set to galvanise Leinster but, after Gopperth was off-target from a tricky touchline conversion, the determined Dragons replied with Prydie’s crucial strike three minutes later. In addition to Fitzgerald’s disallowed score, Leinster were unfortunate to be denied a try from a lineout maul on 43 minutes. Leinster coach Matt O’Connor bemoaned the lack of a TMO for such a big game. “We’re trying to grow the profile of the league, to compete with the Premiership and Top 14. I think it’s unacceptable you wouldn’t have a TMO.”

Scorers for Leinster: D Kearney try, J Gopperth 3 pens.

Scorers for Dragons: P Leach try, T Prydie 3 pens, 1 con.

LEINSTER: D Kearney; F McFadden, B Te’o, N Reid, D Fanning; J Gopperth, L McGrath; M Bent, R Strauss, T Furlong; T Denton, K Douglas; D Ryan, S Jennings, J Conan.

Replacements: A Dundon for Strauss (4-8 & 26), L Fitzgerald for Reid, M McCarthy for Denton (both 12), J Cooney for McGrath, J Van Der Flier for Jennings (both 66).

DRAGONS: J Tovey; T Prydie, P Leach, J Dixon, H Amos; D Jones, J Evans; O Evans, R Thomas, B Harris; A Coombs, R Landman; J Thomas, N Cudd, N Crosswell.

Replacements: R Buckley for J Thomas (29-35), B Stankovich for O Evans (43), A Smith for Dixon (57), R Rees for J Evans (71), D Way for Harris, I Gough for Coombs (both 73).

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU).