Leinster 24

Emirates Lions 6

Daire Walsh reports from Aviva Stadium

A BONUS POINT triumph may have eluded them for the first time this season, but Leinster ultimately held off a strong challenge from Emirates Lions at the Aviva Stadium this evening to continue their winning start to the United Rugby Championship.

Having amassed the maximum tally of 25 points from their opening five games, Leo Cullen’s charges were met with considerable resistance from their South African counterparts in the Ballsbridge venue tonight. Yet with five-pointers from Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris preceding a late penalty try, Leinster have opened up a six-point buffer at the URC summit ahead of an extended break from competitive action.

While there were some notable absentees for this game – and Blackrock College graduate Hugh Cooney was making his first start for the province at outside centre – Leinster’s match day 23 featured nine players that are set to link up with Ireland for their forthcoming Autumn Nations Series campaign.

Included amongst this cohort were out-half Sam Prendergast and hooker Gus McCarthy – both of whom recently faced South African opposition during Emerging Ireland’s three-game tour of the southern hemisphere nation.

Whereas McCarthy was named by Ireland head coach Andy Farrell as one of five training panellists for the upcoming international window, Prendergast is part of their main 35-man squad and could be in line to make his Ireland senior debut at some point in November. He was presented with an ideal opportunity to break the deadlock when Leinster secured a penalty with just over two minutes on the clock and the Kildare native made no mistake with his first effort off the kicking tee.

While the hosts had hoped this would be the catalyst for a dominant opening quarter in the Ballsbridge venue, a Lions side that came into this contest with four wins from as many games this season largely held their own in the early stages. Despite losing full-back Quan Horn after he was sent for a head injury assessment, the visitors edged in front after Kade Woulhuter successfully converted place-kicks in the 13th and 18th minutes.

Leinster breathed a sigh of relief when Woulhuter fired past the posts from inside his own half after the home team conceded another penalty to the Johannesburg men, but – as seemed inevitable – the eastern province eventually gained a foothold in the action.

Although McCarthy couldn’t find his target off a line-out after Prendergast opted for touch off a close-range penalty, Leinster were subsequently awarded an attacking scrum and remained inside the Lions ‘22’ for an extended period.

Their persistence eventually paid off when van der Flier dotted down underneath a slew of bodies on 32 minutes and with Prendergast adding the bonuses in routine fashion, Leinster brought a 10-6 cushion into the interval.

A Leinster victory was far from certain as the second half commenced, however, as Lions were proving themselves to be quite adept at halting the attacking momentum of their Irish rivals. It looked like the Blues had finally got in for their second try of the evening on 54 minutes, but Prendergast’s pass towards fellow Kildare man Andrew Osborne in the lead up to his finish on the right-flank was adjudged to have gone forward.

A potential five-pointer from James Lowe moments later was also ruled out following consultation between referee Craig Evans and TMO Aled Griffiths – Henco van Wyk got his hands to a Prendergast grubber kick ahead of the Irish international – before Leinster finally increased their cushion just shy of the hour mark. After he was picked out close to the whitewash by back-row compatriot van der Flier, player of the match Doris powered over on the left-hand side for a try that was supplemented by a Prendergast bonus strike.

This helped to create some daylight between the teams and also kept Leinster in the hunt for maximum points in a URC fixture for the sixth successive occasion in the current term.

They ultimately fell short in this particular quest, but they did manage to add to their tally in stoppage-time when – after their own South African star RG Snyman superbly claimed a line-out delivery from replacement hooker Stephen Smyth – the aforementioned Evans awarded them a penalty try.

Leinster scorers:

Tries – Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris, Penalty Try

Conversions – Sam Prendergast [2/2]

Penalties – Sam Prendergast [1/1]

Emirates Lions scorers:

Penalties – Kade Wolhuter [2/2]

LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Andrew Osborne, Hugh Cooney, Robbie Henshaw (Charlie Tector ’79), James Lowe; Sam Prendergast (Ross Byrne ’64), Luke McGrath (Cormac Foley ’64); Michael Milne (Andrew Porter ’45), Gus McCarthy (Stephen Smyth ’79), Rabah Slimani (Thomas Clarkson ’45); RG Snyman, Ryan Baird (Brian Deeny ’68); Max Deegan (James Culhane ’70), Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.

EMIRATES LIONS: Quan Horn (Erich Cronje ’11); Richard Kriel, Henco van Wyk, Rynhardt Jonker (Marius Louw ’60), Edwill van der Merwe; Kade Wolhuter (Sanele Nohamba ’68), Morne van den Berg; Juan Schoeman (Heiko Pohlmann ’68), PJ Botha (Franco Marais ’60), Asenathi Ntlabakanye (RF Schoeman ’68); Ruben Schoeman (Ruan Delport ’60), Reinhard Nothnagel; JC Pretorius (Renzo du Plessis ’70), Jarod Cairns, Francke Horn.

Referee: Craig Evans (WRU).

Attendance: 20,945