Leinster book South African semi-final trip with six-try effort against Ulster
GETTIN' LOWE: Leinster’s James Lowe scores his sides second try. Pic Credit: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Leinster are off to the famed Loftus Versfeld for a URC semi-final against the Bulls next week after an ultimately comfortable defeat of neighbours Ulster in front of 18,174 fans at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening.
The Bulls had it much harder earlier in the day when just about managing to squeeze past Benetton at home with seven points to spare, but the assignment is a fiendishly difficult one for the Irish province on the Highveld.
This will be the first time that Leinster bring a full-strength squad to South Africa for a URC game as they go in search of a first trophy since 2021 and a measure of redemption with it for the Champions Cup loss to La Rochelle only last month.
For Ulster and recently-installed head coach Richie Murphy, their season is over.
The visitors gave Leinster plenty of it in this opening quarter with the TMO deciding that Nick Timoney had come up a fraction short of the line eleven minutes in, but they shipped a blow with the loss of Cormac Izuchukwu to a HIA at the end of the quarter.
The Offaly lock was in the midst of a brilliant performance when he was forced off and Leinster made capital on it very soon after when Robbie Henshaw was played in by Jamie Osborne for the evening’s first score.
Osborne had been set free behind the defence by a brilliantly-timed Tadhg Furlong feed but the Naas youngster got lucky in riding a tackle when opting against a pass to Jamison Gibson-Park before swivelling towards Henshaw and completing the job.
It was a score claimed against the run of play, Stuart McCloskey’s block down of a Jimmy O’Brien clearance in the home ‘22’ minutes before it having been a far more representative snapshot of the game up to that.
A Ross Byrne conversion was followed ten minutes later by a penalty and Leinster were now turning the screw with a Caelan Doris surge and a brilliant Henshaw grubber to the Ulster corner setting the foundation for another score.
It came via an inside Byrne pass to James Lowe whose clever line against the grain broke the first line and, with Stewart Moore unable to provide a failsafe with a poor tackle, Leinster were over for a second converted try.
Ulster had six minutes before half-time to find something in response but they couldn’t get it despite a long period camped on the Leinster line. Three lineouts came to naught with Greg Jones coming up short of the line from one of them.
Leinster lived on the edge in that passage of play but you take what you’re given in this game and a 17-0 advantage left Leo Cullen’s side in command at half-time and Ulster needing an answer of some description on the restart.
They got it with a John Cooney penalty three minutes in but any steam built up was lost when Ross Byrne’s crosskick was kept in brilliantly by Lowe’s left leg before the wing kicked on again to touch down.
It was a sublime bit of skill – a day after Munster’s Shane Daly showcased something similar against Ospreys – and it prompted Henshaw to simply stand still and clap his teammates audacious bit of magic.
Maybe Leinster were still celebrating that when Dave McCann went over on the restart and a similar story played out midway through the period when a Jordan Larmour try was countered immediately by one from Stewart Moore.
The net effect of all this, in a game that had loosened up considerably, was that Ulster were still being kept at a comfortable arm’s length.
Tries number five and six followed for the hosts courtesy of Josh van der Flier and the soon-to-depart Ross Molony before Mike Lowry squeezed the deficit with one last burst into the blue corner as injury-time kicked in.
J O’Brien; J Larmour, R Henshaw, J Osborne, J Lowe; R Byrne, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, C Doris.
M Ala’alatoa for Furlong (44); R Kelleher for Sheehan (55); L McGrath for Gibson-Park, R Molony for Ryan and C Frawley for Lowe (all 65); C Healy for Porter (66); S Prendergast for Byrne (69); M Deegan for Doris (71);
S Moore; M Lowry, W Addison, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, J Cooney; E O’Sullivan, R Herring, T O’Toole; H Sheridan, C Izuchukwu; M Rea, D McCann, N Timoney.
E McElroy for Stockdale (48); A Warwick for O’Sullivan (52); N Doak for Burns (57); D Ewers for Rae and J Postlethwaite for Addison (both 65); T Stewart for Herring and S Wilson for O’Toole (both 70).
A Brace (IRFU).
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