Harlequins 21

Leinster 26

Leinster stepped up their preparations for the new United Rugby Championship season with a five-point triumph over English Premiership outfit Harlequins in a lively pre-season encounter at Twickenham Stoop last night.

Thanks to tries from John McKee, Michael Milne, Nick McCarthy and Scott Penny, the eastern province held the edge over their cross-channel counterparts.

Lining out with a largely experimental side that included new signings Charles Ngatai and Jason Jenkins, Leinster broke the deadlock when hooker McKee dotted down with less than two minutes gone on the clock.

Though this was an early set-back for Quins, they subsequently forced themselves on the front-foot and were duly rewarded just shy of the first-quarter mark. Lewis Gjaltema found space inside the Leinster ’22’ to cross over the whitewash and his five-pointer was followed by a smooth bonus strike from half-back partner Tommaso Allan.

The Italian fly-half also supplied the bonuses to Cadan Murley’s clinical finish on 33 minutes, before a converted score from replacement prop Milne ensured Leinster were level at 14-14 heading into the second period.

The visitors had momentum behind them on the resumption with McCarthy latching onto a superb Max Deegan offload for a 51st-minute try. Sam Prendergast (who took over from the injured Ross Byrne prior to the interval) was wide of the mark from the resulting conversion, however, and Quins regained the initiative moments later when Allan added the extras to a Nick David effort.

Yet this was only a minor speed bump for Leinster as openside flanker Penny spotted a gap to break over with 13 minutes remaining. Kildare native Prendergast – younger brother of Connacht lock Cian – split the uprights off the kicking tee and this was enough to get Leinster over the line in a useful exercise.

HARLEQUINS – T Green; N David, L Northmore, L Anyanwu, C Murley; T Allan, L Gjaltema; S Kerrod, G Head, W Collier; G Hammond, I Herbst; J Kenningham, T Lawday, A Dombrandt. Reps: J Musk, J Marler, SG Botta, W Louw, D Lamb, C Matthews, J Chisholm, W Evans, A White, J Stafford, S Steele, J Benson, R Chisholm, B Bradley, C Oresanya.

LEINSTER – M O’Reilly; R Russell, J Osborne, C Ngatai, D Kearney; R Byrne, L McGrath; M Hanan, J McKee, V Abdaladze; R Molony, J Jenkins; W Connors, S Penny, R Ruddock. Reps: L Barron, M Milne, M Aala’alatoa, T Lasisi, B Deeny, A Soroka, M Moloney, M Deegan, N McCarthy, B Murphy, S Prendergast, B Brownlee, C Cosgrave, M Lynch.

REF – W Barnes (RFU).