McGrath bags brace in try-fest

Leinster A 43 Rotherham Titans 24

Leinster ‘A’ helped themselves to six tries at Donnybrook as they secured a home British & Irish Cup quarter-final.

The Blues broke the deadlock after just 30 seconds courtesy of a try from scrum-half Nick McCarthy, with Steve Crosbie adding the conversion and a penalty.

Rotherham hit back through Jordan Davies, but the hosts responded with a breakaway try by winger Mick McGrath. Max Argyle’s try cut the gap to 17-10 at the interval.

Leinster came back out with a bang as Crosbie crossed from their opening attack. Rotherham replied with a third try but the hosts claimed the bonus score through Cian Kelleher just shy of the hour mark, before the Titans also registered a fourth touchdown inside the final quarter.

That left the tie in the balance, but thanks to well-worked tries from the experienced duo of Darragh Fanning and McGrath, Leinster ‘A’ eased to a sixth straight win.

LEINSTER A – B Dardis; C Kelleher, R O’Loughlin (J Carbery 39), H Brewer, M McGrath; S Crosbie (D Fanning 51), N McCarthy (C Rock 65); J Loughman (A Porter 51), B Byrne (A Dundon 57), O Heffernan (J Loughman 71); D O’Connor, J Ryan (W Connors 70); J Murphy, D Leavy (T Ryan 51), P Timmins.

ROTHERHAM TITANS – S Scanlon; M Keating, J Davies (J Gill 45), J Barker, J Hayes; R Jones (W Goodwin 51), L Carter; R Hislop (T Williams 60), J Preece (D Harris 56), M Tampin (J Elliot 60); T Holmes, B Maddison (G Oram 47); M Argyle, T Calladine (A Birch 51), J Redfern.

Ref – D Jones (WRU).