Captian fastastic Sheehan leads Leinster past Dragons
LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Dan Sheehan of Leinster is tackled by Ryan Woodman of Dragons during the United Rugby Championship match between Dragons and Leinster at Rodney Parade in Newport, Wales. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Dan Sheehan turned into ‘Captain Fantastic’ in his first game in charge of Leinster as he scored the opening try, made another and saw his side home to a bonus-point win on the road that moved them level on points with the top two teams.
The Bulls and Glasgow Warriors had both moved onto 15 points with away wins over the Round 4 weekend, but Leinster’s win hoisted them from ninth to third.
Sheehan was one of five Irish World Cup players in the starting XV along with Ross Byrne, Jimmy O’Brien, Joe McCarthy and Ryan Baird, and their influence was huge on an awful day to play positive rugby. Byrne converted four out of five tries and McCarthy picked up the man of the match award.
For the pretty toothless Dragons, it was a fourth straight defeat and they didn’t help themselves.
Their Wales World Cup flanker Taine Basham was given a red card for a pretty needless and unsubtle elbow to the head of Byrne, while four minutes later Matthew Screech saw yellow for a shoulder into the head of Rob Russell.
It took Sheehan a mere nine minutes to notch the first points as he converted a driving line-out into a simple try which Byrne improved. That position came after the Leinster front row had squeezed the first of a stream of penalties out of the home scrum.
Cai Evans responded with a penalty, but a second try four minutes before the break for the visitors stretched their lead. Forced to take a line-out throw instead of a scrum in their 22, the dragons lost the ball and found themselves defending a five-metre scrum.
They once again conceded a penalty, and this time Sheehan organised a dummy tap penalty move. He went to take the kick, but moved away to allow scrum-half Ben Murphy to jump in, feed No 8 James Culhane moving the other way and he sent Tom Clarkson over to make it 14-3 at half-time.
It took less than a minute of the second half before Sheehan had inspired the third try. This time he started a move on halfway after the Dragons had lost the ball before popping up in support to help Ciaran Frawley score in the right corner.
Once again Byrne hit the target to make it 21-3, but then the Dragons had their best period. After some good forward pressure near the Leinster line, scrum-half Rhodri Williams threaded the ball through the thin blue line towards the posts and centre Aneurin Owen raced onto the kick to dive and score a try that Evans improved.
Leinster’s bonus-point try came just after the hour mark as a Byrne cross-kick to replacement wing Russell paved the way for Charlie Ngatai to cross.
The final nail in the Dragons coffin came in added time as Scott Penny rolled over from another driving line out for Byrne to convert.
Try: A Owen; Con: C Evans; Pen: C Evans.
Tries: D Sheehan, T Clarkson, C Frawley, C Ngatai, S Penny: Cons: R Byrne 4.
Cai Evans; Rio Dyer, Steff Hughes (captain, Jack Dixon 76), Aneurin Owen, Jared Rosser (Ewan Rosser; Will Reed, Rhodri Williams (Dane Blacker 65); Rhodri Jones (Aki Seiuli 64), Elliot Dee (James Benjamin 64), Lloyd Fairbrother (Luke Yendle 64), Matthew Screech, George Nott, Dan Lydiate (Sean Lonsdale 68), Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright (Ryan Woodman 49).
T Basham 66.
M Screech 70.
Ciarán Frawley; Tommy O’Brien (Rob Russell 63), Jamie Osborne, Charlie Ngatai (Harry Byrne 65), Jimmy O’Brien; Ross Byrne, Ben Murphy (Cormac Foley 49); Jack Boyle (Paddy McCarthy 64), Dan Sheehan (captain, Lee Barron 64), Thomas Clarkson (Michael Ala’alatoa 50), Joe McCarthy, Jason Jenkins (Max Deegan 65), Ryan Baird (Jason Jenkins 69), Will Connors (Scott Penny 69), James Culhane.
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