Leinster fail to impress in overcoming Scarlets and booking URC semi-final slot

James Lowe of Leinster in action against Ellis Mee of Scarlets. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

URC: Leinster 33 Scarlets 21  

If playoff rugby is all about winning, then this URC quarter-final stands as a case of job done for Leinster. 

The other take is that all does not feel right in the province and the struggle in keeping Scarlets at bay on Saturday afternoon only backs that up.

It’s not that Leinster weren’t the better team. They were, but they could be thankful for the 13 points they mined during the 20 minutes when the opposition was down to 14 men, and to a debatable try just after the interval.

They really should be better than this.

Leo Cullen’s side meet Glasgow Warriors here again next Saturday in the last four. Their record against the Scots is excellent but the score was just 13-5 when the pair met in Dublin earlier this month and this is a Leinster side that just isn’t convincing right now.

It may be that the Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton Saints in Ballsbridge sucked too much of the marrow from their bones. It certainly seems to have left them with something of a hangover. Whatever it is, they need a cure.

Leinster looked like they would put this one to bed nice and early and let everyone get on with the rest of their Bank Holiday. Two tries inside ten minutes, the first for James Lowe and another from Jamison Gibson-Park, seemed to bode ill for the contest.

There wasn’t much to spell danger, or even concern, at that point. There were a couple of overthrown lineouts and Josh van der Flier was starting to feel his right thigh – before coming off on the half-hour – but then an actual game broke out.

Scarlets hadn’t seen the other side of Leinster’s 22-metre line until the second quarter kicked in. Then they went and scored with their first visit, Sam Costelow throwing an overarm pass for Tom Rogers who cut inside two weak tackles to touch down.

Now it was 12-7.

The next 20 minutes was a mish-mash of some good and some bad, some Scarlets half-breaks and some Leinster huffing and puffing, but the only addition to the scoreboard was a Sam Prendergast penalty from near the halfway line.

Even the act of taking that pop at goal spoke volumes for the type of game that had unfolded, but Leinster looked like pushing out that eight-point lead right on the interval when they surged strongly to within touching distance of the try line.

And then, calamity.

All Prendergast had to do was catch Gibson-Park’s pass from the base of the ruck and feed it wide. He dropped it. Three hoofs later and Blair Murray was touching down on the far side of the field and Costelow had added the extra two points.

That left it 15-14 at the break and a crowd of 12,879 – a few hundred of them decked in red – wondering if they were about to witness another failure of barely believable proportions by a club that has 12 players touring this summer with the British and Irish Lions.

Prendergast made amends on the restart, his chip kick from off the base of a scrum falling perfectly for Jamie Osborne to follow it in under the posts, but it was a controversial score, the referee and TMO deciding the Naas man had enough contact and control on the ball.

Scarlets had reason to be miffed at that.

There were no floodgates being opened on the back of it. It took another 14 minutes for Hugo Keenan to claim the fourth try, this one coming after Alex Hepburn had been shown a yellow card moments before.

A terrible conversion attempt from Prendergast left less than two converted tries between the sides but the out-half generated a bit more wiggle room with a 66th-minute penalty that left it 30-14. And they would need it.

Scarlets weren’t long back to 15 men when Johnny Williams went over for the visitors’ third try of the day and the conversion left just seven points in it before Vaea Fifita went to the bin and a third Prendergast penalty returned the margin to ten.

No kicking for the corner here.

Leinster: H Keenan; J O’Brien, J Osborne, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan.

Replacements: S Penny for van der Flier (29); D Sheehan for Kelleher and RG Snyman for Ryan (both 46); R Slimani for Clarkson (58); L McGrath for Gibson-Park and J Boyle for Porter (both 66); M Deegan for Conan (68) and Snyman (74); C Frawley for Keenan (75).

Scarlets: B Murray; T Rogers, J Roberts, J Williams, E Mee; S Costelow, A Hughes; A Hepburn, R Elias, H Thomas; A Craig, S Lousi; V Fifita, J Macleod, T Plumtree.

Replacements: M van der Merwe for Elias (51); K Mathias for Craig (58); I Lloyd for Costelow (59); M Page for Rogers and S Wainwright for Thomas (both 65); J Taylor for Hepburn (67); D Davis for Macleod and E Jones for Hughes (both 75).

Referee: H Davidson (SRU).