RUGBY
Leinster fall to defeat in final pre-season game
By Daire Walsh
ADAM Byrne and Joey Carbery were on the scoresheet at Donnybrook on Friday evening, but Leinster ultimately succumbed to a 39-19 defeat at the hands of Bath in their final pre-season game ahead of their new campaign.
Following successes over Ulster and Gloucester in Navan RFC and the Tallaght Stadium respectively, the Blues welcomed the Aviva Premiership outfit to south Dublin for their third warm-up game in the space of 13 days.
Bath are familiar opponents to Leinster, as the two sides were drawn together in the group stages of the European Rugby Champions Cup last term. Leo Cullen’s charges suffered an agonising 19-16 reversal at the Recreation Ground in November of last year, before claiming a 25-11 win (their only one of the pool) at the RDS two months later.
Kildare native James Tracy appeared in both of these games, and he was handed a starting berth alongside Byrne and Carbery for this latest friendly encounter. Naas’ Jamie Heaslip took his seat in the stand along with a host of familiar faces from the Leinster squad, and he was there to see his fellow countyman Jeremy Loughman make a second-half appearance from the replacements bench.
While Leinster named a squad of 31 players, Bath opted for just 25 names in their match-day set-up, but they displayed their intent during the early exchanges by creating a 13-point cushion. An early penalty by fly-half Rhys Priestland was supplemented by a converted try from Dave Attwood, and thanks to another successful Priestland three-pointer, they were developing a strong platform in the tie.
However, the hosts eventually settled into the stride, and courtesy of a neat Rob Kearney off-load, Byrne squeezed through for a 16th-minute try. This boosted the confidence levels of Leinster, and from their subsequent attack, captain Ross Molony touched down at the end of an enterprising move.
With Carbery supplying the bonuses to this score, the gap had been reduced to the bare minumum, but it was Bath who had the final say in the opening period. Winger Jeff Williams finished off a sweeping attack in the right-corner, and with Priestland expertly splitting the posts from a tight-angle, it was the visitors who brought a 20-12 lead into the interval.
As expected, Leinster once again made wholesale changes for the start of the second-half, but it was Bath who extended their cushion inside the final-quarter – when Semesa Rokoduguni claimed his side’s third try of the evening.
Leinster did reduce their deficit once more by registering a try through Barry Daly in the 72nd-minute, but breakaway tries in the latter stages of the action by Harry Davies and George Ford ensured that Bath were the victors on the night.
While Cullen and his backroom team will no doubt be disappointed that they couldn’t record a victory in this game, they will nevertheless be targeting a win against Benetton Treviso in their Guinness Pro12 opener at the RDS this Friday evening.