Seven up for Leinster
GUINNESS PRO14
Leinster 52
Ospreys 7
Daire Walsh
RDS
Leinster tightened their grip at the summit of the Guinness PRO14 Conference B table with a resounding victory over a flat Ospreys side at the RDS last night.
With seven different try scorers over the course of the contest, the Blues move 10 points clear of second-place Scarlets.
On his side’s return to competitive action, head coach Leo Cullen offered debuts to openside flanker Scott Penny, as well as second-half replacements Jimmy O’Brien and Jack Kelly.
Wallabies veteran Scott Fardy led out a largely experimental side, and he broke through a gap to set-up outside centre Conor O’Brien for a breakthrough score in the 12th-minute.
Deputising fly-half Ciaran Frawley was on hand to apply the extras to the Mullingar man’s effort and he also dispatched a penalty between the posts during the second-quarter.
The impressive Penny was making an immediate impact for the defending champions and he finished off a powerful line-out maul just past the half-hour mark.
Ospreys looked set to open their account when a devastating Sam Davies break released James Hook for a seemingly routine try, but it was ruled out for a Johnny Kotze slap down on Noel Reid in the build-up.
Instead, it was Leinster who ended the opening period on a high – Munster-bound scrum-half Nick McCarthy breaking free to give the hosts a 24-0 interval buffer.
Fardy added his name to the scoresheet five minutes after the restart as the tries continued to flow in Ballsbridge.
Ed Byrne heralded his entrance to the fray with a powerful drove over the Ospreys line on 56 minutes and this was supplemented by Max Deegan’s five-pointer inside the closing-quarter. Via a neat off-load by twin brother Ed, replacement Bryan Byrne subsequently registered his 10th career try for Leinster.
Even though Hanno Dirksen finally breached their defence in the closing moments, it wasn’t enough to dampen the mood in the Leinster camp.
Scorers for Leinster: C O’Brien, S Penny, N McCarthy, S Fardy, E Byrne, M Deegan, B Byrne try each, C Frawley pen, 7 cons.
Scorers for Ospreys: H Dirksen try, S Davies con.
LEINSTER: H Keenan; A Byrne, C O’Brien, N Reid, J Lowe; C Frawley, N McCarthy; P Dooley, J Tracy, M Bent; R Molony, S Fardy; J Murphy, S Penny, C Doris.
Replacements: H O’Sullivan for McCarthy (h-t), E Byrne for Dooley (48), M Deegan for Murphy, B Byrne for Tracy (59), V Abdaladze for Bent, M Kearney for Molony, J O’Brien for C O’Brien (all 63), J Kelly for Lowe (67).
OSPREYS: J Hook; H Dirksen, C Allen, J Kotze, K Giles; S Davies, T Habberfield; R Jones, S Otten, T Botha; G Nemsadze, L Ashley; O Cracknell, S Cross, J King.
Replacements: S Parry for Otten, L Morgan for Hook (both 45), G Thomas for R Jones, A Jeffries for Botha, R McCusker for Nemsadze, T Williams for Kotze (all 59), M Aubrey for Habberfield (63), W Jones for Cross (67).
Referee: M Mitrea (FIR).