Celtic League: Leinster book quarter-final place

Leinster 52 Pontypridd 14

Leinster booked a home quarter-final berth in the Celtic League last

night with an eight-try demolition of Pontypridd at Donnybrook, Dublin.

Lions and Ireland centre Brian O’Driscoll marked his first game of the

season with two tries and winger Denis Hickie also grabbed a double as

the Irish side made it six wins out of six at the top of Pool B.

Two early tries had given the Irishmen a flying start despite the

visitors opening the scoring with a third-minute Alex Lawson penalty.

First over the line was Leinster fly-half Nathan Spooner, thanks to a

surging run into enemy territory from number eight Victor Costello.

The back row offloaded to Spooner who ran in close to the posts to give

himself an easy conversion kick.

Four minutes later Costello was on the charge again. This time

O’Driscoll was the recipient. He touched down to give Leinster a 12-3

lead, Spooner missing the conversion.

Lawson fired over a penalty for Pontypridd on the half-hour but missed

another five minutes later. And as Leinster waited for him to line up yet

another Pontypridd scrum-half Gareth Baber caught the home side on the

hop.

His quickly-taken tap penalty put centre Sonny Parker in for a try in

the corner.

Pontypridd were back in it at 12-11 but Lawson missed the conversion and

two Spooner penalties just before half-time gave Leinster a healthy 18-11

interval advantage.

Lawson again reduced the deficit this time to four points, with a 52nd-

minute penalty. Leinster did not panic, instead they turned the screw to

kill off the Welsh threat.

Trevor Brennan scored the first of a flurry of tries on 55 minutes. Then

came a double from flying wing Hickie. The first of his pair finished off

a spell of intense pressure on the Pontypridd line.

The second was a piece of individual brilliance, Hickie’s blistering

solo run from deep in his own half carving open the Welsh defence.

Now it was a rout. Costello added the sixth try of the night and

O’Driscoll the seventh to repeat the try count from the weekend victory

over Bridgend.

The half-century of points was clocked up for the second game in a row

when substitute forward Liam Toland ran over with the successful

conversion being the final kick of the game.