RUGBY COLUMN – SEPTEMBER 19
By Daire Walsh
At the end of a week where off-field issues dominated the headlines, Leinster continued their winning start to life in the Guinness PRO14 with a comfortable 31-10 triumph over the Southern Kings in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.
Leinster had included New Zealand natives Isa Nacewa and Jamison Gibson-Park in their 28-man squad for two away encounters with the league’s new South African additions.
With Nacewa now in his third season as club captain, and Gibson-Park a regular member of the Blues’ match day squad, it was expected that they might feature at some point in this game. However, a law introduced in January of this year stipulates that citizens of New Zealand must obtain a Visa if they want to enter South Africa, and neither player had one on their journey from Dublin.
This meant that Nacewa and Gibson-Park were eventually forced to return home to Ireland, and while they arrived back to the southern hemisphere on Sunday after they were granted valid Visas, they were unfortunately ruled out of contention for Leinster’s third outing of the 2017/18 season.
Nick McCarthy was flown in at the 11th hour as a replacement for Gibson-Park, and he took his place on the replacements bench in the Port Elizabeth venue. He was joined there by Kill native James Tracy, and there were spots in the starting line-up for the Kildare duo of Joey Carbery and Adam Byrne.
Carbery was making his first appearance since he picked up an injury on Ireland’s summer tour, and he joined Adam Byrne in the back-three alongside another returning international star – Dave Kearney.
Given the slow start that the Springboks club have made to life in the new PRO12, Leinster were hot favourites to come out on top in this game. Southern Kings were hoping that home advantage might count for something, and Masixole Banda opened the scoring with a third-minute penalty. However, Leinster quickly responded with a try from centre Noel Reid, which was supplemented by a Ross Byrne conversion.
This proved to be the final score of the half, but with a 7-3 cushion at their disposal, the visitors were in a confident mood upon the resumption. Tries by Rory O’Loughlin and Jack Conan created serious daylight between the teams, and a bonus point was secured on 51 minutes, when Carbery crossed over the whitewash.
Dave Kearney capped a productive return to the side with another try late on, and even though Jacques Nel subsequently drove over the Leinster line, Leinster will embark on Friday’s meeting with the Toyota Cheetahs in a positive frame of mind.
Meanwhile, Naas made a fine start to their Ulster Bank League Division 1B campaign on Saturday, when they defeated Dolphin on a scoreline of 30-20 in Irish Independent Park. Player/coach Johne Murphy kicked 10 points from out-half, while two tries apiece from Fionn Higgins and Michael Skelton made certain of a thrilling bonus-point success over the Cork men.