RUGBY COLUMN – OCTOBER 31
By Daire Walsh
TWO tries from second-half replacement Luke McGrath aided Leinster’s cause at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday evening, when the Blues defeated interprovincial rivals Ulster in a typically tense Guinness PRO12 encounter.
Back-to-back Champions Cup victories over Montpellier and Glasgow Warriors ensured that Leinster were in a positive frame of mind ahead of their return to league action, and following the announcement of the Ireland squad for the upcoming November internationals last Thursday, their latest journey to Belfast served as a perfect audition for a number of players.
Of the 38 selected by Joe Schmidt for Ireland’s home games against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina at the Aviva Stadium, there is an 18-strong representation from Leinster’s ever-expanding first-team squad. Kill’s James Tracy is one of five front-row players to be included from his province, and he will be hoping to add to the four caps he picked up during a whirlwind 2016/17 campaign.
Joey Carbery (Athy) also has four international appearances to his name, and regular game-time at full-back with Leinster this season raises the possibility that he could feature in the same starting line-up as Jonathan Sexton.
One of the big talking points surrounding the squad’s announcement was the omission of Munster’s Simon Zebo – who revealed that he will be playing overseas after he leaves Munster in the summer of 2018.
Though the policy of only selecting players that are based in Ireland meant that he was eventually going to miss out, it was something of a surprise that he was immediately dropped from Joe Schmidt’s squad.
However, the New Zealand has named four uncapped backs for the upcoming series, including 24-year-old winger Adam Byrne. The former Naas CBS star returned to the Leinster side for their away trip to Ulster, which brought him into direct contact with another promising wing man – Jacob Stockdale.
It proved to be a compelling battle between the two, and though Ulster broke the deadlock with a Christian Lealifano penalty, a superb try from early substitute Jordan Larmour subsequently edged Leinster in front.
Ulster responded with a converted score of their own from Sean Reidy, but courtesy of a consecutive six-point haul by Ross Byrne, Leinster brought a slender 13-10 cushion into the interval.
However, given that it was exactly a year ago that Ulster last lost a home game in the PRO12/PRO14, Leinster knew that their job was only have done. Yet, the visitors had a wealth of experience left on the bench, with Richardt Strauss and Cian Healy now having a combined provincial appearance record of 328 games.
It was McGrath who made the greatest impact of all, though, as tries in the 58th and 78th minutes helped Leinster to register a magnificent 25-10 success. This briefly moved them to the summit of Conference B, before Tadhg Beirne and his Scarlets team-mates regained top spot with a convincing 30-17 win over Cardiff Blues in an entertaining Welsh derby.