Imperfect Leinster edge Ulster for fifth win in a row
Tadhg Furlong of Leinster celebrates after his side scored a fourth try during the URC match against Ulster. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
They’re still not purring but this bonus-point win over the northern neighbours is Leinster’s fifth in a row. They go to Limerick next Saturday with a perfect record since that loss to Munster in Croke Park in October.
Not a crisis, then, but they’re a long way off it yet.
For Ulster, their hopes of winning on Lansdowne Road for the first time since a Heineken Cup semi-final against Edinburgh 13 years ago fell five minutes short despite leading 17-7 at half-time and 20-12 just through the hour.
Leinster had tonnes of ball but took an age to make use of it. There was a crooked lineout in their first trip to the Ulster 22, three terrible kicks in a row from Sam Prendergast and basic errors like a tackle in the air from Joshua Kenny.
Ulster, who weren’t perfect, made the most of all this with Werner Kok getting his first try, and fifth in three games, off the back of a brilliant Jack Murphy crosskick and favourable bounce in the 14th minute.
It wasn’t the only flash of danger.
Tom Stewart poached a Leinster maul and ran half the length of the pitch, and Rob Baloucoune almost made it in behind the Leinster line on two other occasions amidst the longer periods of home pressure.
Leinster turned the screw midway through the half and got over through Rieko Ioane’s first try for the province 26 minutes in. Even this was a source of concern having pummelled the line futilely and butchered an earlier attempt to go wide.
Prendergast did at least start and finish that spell with two sublime long passes.
The pressure intensified with Leinster 7-5 to the good. Ulster were hanging on and hanging on, stacking penalties and tackles up, until an ill-judged Charlie Tector offload fell to Nathan Doak who fly-kicked it forward. The rampaging Kok did the rest.
A third Ulster try followed before the break. It was a salutary lesson to Leinster on the benefits of good basics well executed. The passes were slick, the progress steady until Stewart broke weak tackles by James Lowe and Tector to go over.
The gap was ten points at the break. We had ourselves a game.
It could have been worse for the boys in blue by then with Alex Soroka avoiding any discipline for a late and high tackle attempt on Murphy who had ducked underneath, but even a Lowe 50-22 on the restart didn’t kickstart much.
Leo Cullen and his brains trust had seen enough by the 44th minute when they landed Dan Sheehan, Paddy McCarthy, Tadhg Furlong and Joe McCarthy onto the pitch like tanks on a lawn. It was dramatic and it was needed.
It still took another ten minutes for Leinster to eat into the deficit, a penalty advantage allowing Lowe to loop a long throw for Kenny to continue his scoring streak since making his debut in mid-October.
Now, for the first time, the chants of Leinster began to ring out but they were soon stopped when James Ryan was sent to the sinbin for a yellow card and a review after an illegal clearout of tighthead Sam Crean at a ruck.
It’s less than a month since Ryan saw red for a more egregious effort against the Boks. This one wasn’t upgraded but it left his colleagues in a hole. Nathan Doak capitalised with a penalty to stretch the lead to eight points just inside the last quarter.
Leinster needed to hit their straps quickly and some pulverising carries from the McCarthy brothers, Joe and Paddy, helped them in that before, with Ulster sucked centrally, the ball was flung wide for Lowe to trot in.
Another missed conversion, the fourth of the game to that point, left Ulster three in front but the dam was cracking. Dave McCann was sent to the bin for the last nine minutes for a deliberate knock-on and Dan Sheehan mauled over with five to go.
A Harry Byrne conversion and they were four in front with the scoring done. Close.
C Frawley, J Kenny, R Ioane, C Tector, J Lowe, S Prendergast, L McGrath; J Boyle, G McCarthy, R Slimani, B Deeny, J Ryan, A Soroka, S Penny, J Conan.
T Furlong for Slimani, J McCarthy for Deeney, D Sheehan for G McCarthy, P McCarthy for Boyle (all 44); H Byrne for Tector (47); M Deegan for Soroka (53); F Gunne for McGrath (72); C McKee for Doak (80).
J Stockdale, R Baloucoune, J Postlethwaite, S McCloskey, W Kok, J Murphy, N Doak; A Bell, T Stewart, T O'Toole, H Sheridan, C Irvine, D McCann, N Timoney, Augustus.
J Hopes for Irvine (47); E Ilroy for Baloucoune (49); S Crean for Bell and S Wilson for O’Toole (both 55); B Ward for Augustus (64); J Andrew for Stewart (66-72).
A Brace (IRFU).
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