Leinster flirt with danger in Zebre crossing

[team1]Zebre[/team1][score1]24[/score1][team2]Leinster[/team2][score2]40[/score2][/score]

When Ross Byrne dummied and raced under the posts in the 22nd minute, he and Leinster must have thought their job was done in Italy.

The out-half’s try was Leinster’s third and his conversion put them 21 points up with almost an hour left to play.

Leinster, the clear leaders of Conference A, against the bottom side in Conference B, it was game over, surely. Not quite.

While Benetton – who beat Scarlets on Saturday – are in contention for the play-offs in Conference B and Italy’s best team by a distance, Michael Bradley’s side are seen as the easier touch, with just three wins from their 14 games before Saturday.

But they showed they had more in them at the weekend, and trailed by just two points at half time, with three tries coming in the space of only eight minutes.

Yet, this season Leinster’s fringe side have shown they are capable of seeing off teams even when things aren’t going quite to plan – remember Connacht and Scarlets at home?

Both sides scored early in the second half, but ultimately Leinster had too much and took the full five points back with them to Dublin.

They enjoyed the perfect start – or so you’d think – with Max Deegan crossing the line with just six minutes on the clock, touching down after Leinster’s lineout maul barged through the Zebre defence.

Less than 10 minutes later, Leinster attacked from the lineout platform once more, with Conor O’Brien making ground through the middle before the ball found its way out side where Dave Kearney raced home.

A third try came soon after and it looked like the hosts might simply fold. The try should not perhaps have counted – with a block in the build up somehow missed by the officials – but Byrne did not complain, and strolled home.

At 21-0, with 22 minutes gone, there seemed no way back – but somehow the Italians found one.

For starters, they got their hands on more ball, and from an attacking scrum Giovanni Licata fed Francois Brummer and the full-back forced his way over for the first of his two tries.

Tommaso Boni then put immense pressure on the Leinster attack, forcing O’Brien to throw a loose pass that was intercepted by Jamie Elliott who showed great pace to storm home from 60 metres.

Zebre were within reach now, and got even closer when Gabriele di Giulio rounded Kearney out wide to score the hosts’ third try.

Carlo Canna’s missed conversion ensured Leinster went to the break in front, but with only two points between the sides after a chaotic 40 minutes.

Scott Fardy was the unlikely scorer of the first try of the second half, with Jamison Gibson-Park’s skip pass finding the Australian alone out on the left wing.

The expected surge clear didn’t come just yet, with Brummer scoring his second on the hour mark – finding space out wide far too easily.

Leo Cullen

With six minutes to go, there were just four points between the sides, and a shock win for the hosts was not out of the question.

But unlike other seasons, when Leinster coughed up points during international breaks, there was to be no slip up in Italy with O’Brien scoring the fifth try of his breakthrough season.

That looked to be that, but a sixth try arrived with two minutes to go, Deegan wrapping up the 10-try fest with his second of the day.

ZEBRE: Brummer; Di Giulio, Bisegni, Boni, Elliott (Balekana 9-17); Canna, Renton; Rimpelli (Fischetti 65), Fabiani (Luus 65), Zilocchi (Chistolini 7), Ortis (Brown 79), Biagi (c) (Tauyavuca 61), Mbanda, Tuivaiti, Licata.

LEINSTER: D Kearney; A Byrne (R Byrne 70), O’Loughlin, C O’Brien, Daly; R Byrne (N Reid 63), Gibson-Park (O’Sullivan 78); J McGrath (Dooley 51), Tracy (B Byrne 51), Porter (Bent 51), Molony (M Kearney 63), Fardy (c), Murphy, Deegan, Doris