By LEINSTER ‘a’ 50 CONNACHT ‘A’ 0 ‘A’ inter-provincial

Thursday March 15 2012

Brendan Macken was the star of the show at Anglesea Road yesterday, as his hat-trick of tries helped Leinster to a comfortable victory over Connacht.

World Cup-winning All-Black Brad Thorn made his debut in the Leinster colours having recently signed a three-month contract with the Heineken Cup champions.

The 49-times capped lock could have a pivotal role to play with Joe Schmidt‘s charges in the coming weeks, and he was delighted to get some game time ahead of the visit of the Ospreys in the Pro12 next week.

“Today was just about getting a hit out. In 40 minutes (he was replaced at the break), I got through a few rucks and made a few rusty tackles; a bit of scrummaging and some line work. That is what I wanted to get out of it. It was good to play with the team — I enjoyed it,” Thorn said afterwards.

This game also marked the return of out-half Mat Berquist after a lengthy injury lay-off and he made an immediate impact when his telling pass six minutes in paved the way for centre Macken to drive over underneath the posts.

The former Auckland star coolly slotted over the subsequent conversion.

Connacht captain Jack Carty had an excellent opportunity to reduce his side’s deficit with a 25-metre penalty after 16 minutes, but his kick drifted past the posts.

The Westerners suffered a set-back seven minutes later when prop Rodney Ah You was sin-binned for a high tackle on John Cooney and Leinster took full advantage of his absence by securing their second try of the afternoon through Old Belvedere’s Leo Auva’a, converted once again by Berquist.

Another Auva’a try would follow three minutes before the break following good work by Andrew Boyle and Leinster were full value for their 19-0 lead at the half-time.

excellent

The Blues re-emerged without the 37-year-old Thorn, but this didn’t stop them adding to their advantage courtesy of an excellent individual try by Macken after 45 minutes, Berquist again adding the conversion.

The No 10 followed up with a routine penalty seven minutes later, before being replaced almost immediately by Clontarf’s Noel Reid, who added a two-pointer of his own with 63 minutes gone after left-wing Darren Hudson crossed.

Further tries would follow through flanker Dominic Ryan and Macken. Both were converted by Reid as Leinster completed a landslide victory.

LEINSTER ‘A’ — A Conway; A Boyle (S Crosbie 63), B Macken, C O’Shea, D Hudson; M Berquist (N Reid 53), J Cooney; J McGrath ( J Tracy 66), A Dundon (T Sexton 66), J Hagan (M Moore 66); B Thorn (A O’Connor h-t), M Flanagan; R Ruddock ( J Murphy 58), D Ryan (D Doyle 75), L Auva’a.

CONNACHT ‘A’ — M Jarvis; J Loxton (C Fitzgibbon 53), B Murphy (K O’Byrne 50), T Leader, D Leader; J Carty (I O’Grady 63), D Moore ( M Dever 63); F Bealham (D Buckley 53), D Murphy, R Ah You (Stephens 53); C Kindregan, M Kearney; D Heffernan (J Stephens 25-33), E Grace, E McKeon (B Moylett 50),

Ref — S Gallagher (IRFU).

– LEINSTER ‘a’ 50 CONNACHT ‘A’ 0 ‘A’ inter-provincial

Irish Independent