Dragons pose few problems for Blues
LEINSTER 28
DRAGONS 15
By Daire Walsh
LEINSTER moved up to second in the Guinness PRO12 table with victory over Newport Gwent Dragons at a sparsely-populated RDS.
The routed started after 12 minutes when Luke McGrath broke and Birr native Peter Dooley powered over on the left-hand side.
Isa Nacewa converted and then added the bonuses to a Ross Molony try just three minutes later. Like Dooley before him, this was a maiden try in Blue for the towering second-row, and a rampant Leinster claimed a third converted try through Jack Conan on the half-hour mark, going in at the break 21-3 ahead.
Within two minutes of the restart, they secured a much-desired bonus point. A massive break by Rory O’Loughlin left the returning Joey Carbery with the simple task of touching down underneath the posts.
By this point, Leinster had introduced several players from their replacements bench, and Dragons responded with a try of their own from winger Pat Howard on 55 minutes. Charlie Rock and Max Deegan were also introduced for their Leinster debuts in the final-quarter, but with ten minutes remaining in the contest, Sarel Pretorius dotted down at the end of a prolonged attacking move by the visitors.
Angus O’Brien superbly split the posts from a tricky touchline kick to reduce the Dragons deficit to 13 points, but they couldn’t rein in the Leinster challenge.
LEINSTER: Z Kirchner; A Byrne, R O’Loughlin, N Reid, I Nacewa; J Carbery, L McGrath; P Dooley, J Tracy, J Loughman; R Molony, H Triggs; R Ruddock, D Leavy, J Conan.
Reps: T Daly for Reid (19), R Byrne for Carbery (46), R Strauss for Tracy, A Porter for Dooley, O Heffernan for Loughman (all 53), M McCarthy for Triggs, C Rock for McGrath (both 63), M Deegan for Ruddock (76). SCORERS: Tries – P Dooley, R Molony, J Conan, J Carbery. Cons: I Nacewa 4.
NEWPORT GWENT DRAGONS: C Meyer; P Howard, T Morgan, J Dixon, A Warren; A O’Brien, T Knoyle; P Price, E Dee, B Harris; N Crosswell, R Landman; L Evans, N Cudd, H Keddie.
Replacements: T Prydie for Meyer (21), J Thomas for Cudd (39-40, blood), Thomas for Keddie, T Davies for Price (both 48), C Hill for Crosswell (51), GR Jones for Dixon (53), R Buckley for Dee, S Pretorius for Knoyle (both 55), T Morgan for Jones (72-75, blood), L Fairbrother for Harris (76). SCORERS: Tries: P Howard, S Pretorius. Cons: A O’Brien. Pens: A O’Brien.
REFEREE: M Mitrea (FIR).