Leinster labour to win against battling Bayonne

The victory on the road guarantees a home quarter-final in the Champions Cup. 

MAX EFFORT: Leinster’s Max Deegan scores a try. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Leinster are guaranteed a home quarter-final in the Champions Cup after lumbering to a come-from-behind 22-13 win over a dogged Bayonne at Stade Jean Dauger on Saturday, a week after they had beaten La Rochelle in Dublin with the final kick of the match.

But they needed tries from Sam Prendergast and Max Deegan in the last six minutes to snatch victory from the jaws of what at kick-off had seemed to be an unlikely defeat against a side with no surviving interest in this season’s Champions Cup after three defeats and zero points from their first three games.