RUGBY
Leinster held at home by Benetton
By Daire Walsh
ILIESA Ratuva Tavuyara grabbed a stoppage-time try for Benetton at the RDS on Saturday evening to deny Leinster victory in a pulsating Guinness PRO14 encounter.
Already assured of a home semi-final as the undisputed pace-setters of Conference B, Leinster looked set to prevail when Ciaran Frawley crossed over on 70 minutes. The resilient Italians refused to yield, however, and got their just rewards on the stroke of full-time.
Despite making wholesale changes in the wake of their gruelling Champions Cup showdown with Ulster, Blues head coach Leo Cullen was able to field a starting line-up full of quality. Suncroft’s Fergus McFadden took the place of fellow Kildare native Adam Byrne on the right-wing – he joined Barry Daly and James Lowe in the back-three.
After a productive cameo appearance in Europe, James Tracy (Kill) was promoted to the front-row in unison with the Ulster-bound Jack McGrath.
There was a late disruption for Leinster as Josh Murphy was ruled out of the contest with an illness. He was indirectly replaced by Ireland U20s Grand Slam winner Scott Penny – Ed Byrne was added to a bench that already featured Eadestown’s Jimmy O’Brien.
Due to the tight nature of the game – and an early injury for Noel Reid – O’Brien was ultimately an unused replacement on the night. In response to an early converted score for Luca Bigi, Reid opened the Leinster account with a penalty on 17 minutes.
Frawley subsequently deputised for the fly-half and was on hand to trade three-pointers with the reliable Tommaso Allan. The visitors largely dominated the opening period and Allan’s second place-kick gave them a 13-6 cushion at the midway point.
Leinster moved up a few gears on the restart, though, recording five-pointers through James Lowe and Bryan Byrne either side of Frederico Ruzza’s similar effort for Benetton.
There was an air of contention about Frawley’s resulting seven-point salvo as McFadden might well have conceded a penalty in the build-up.
Equally, there was a suspicion of obstruction on Lowe – by replacement Antonio Rizzi – in the moments before Tavuyara dived over at the death. However, the try was allowed to stand and Allan split the uprights to gain a share of the spoils for his side.
As a result of their convincing 45-21 win over Cardiff Blues on Friday, Munster can look forward to a home quarter-final at the very least. Tadhg Beirne (Eadestown) and Jeremy Loughman (Athy) appeared off the bench for the in-form Reds.
Meanwhile, Naas man Billy Dardis played a starring role in a groundbreaking success for the Ireland Men’s 7s in the Hong Kong Sevens last weekend.
Despite being absent for the first day of the tournament, the Irish skipper returned for their semi-final against Germany on Sunday.
He contributed nine points in a 19-10 victory, before they had 21 points to spare (28-7) over the host nation in the resulting final. This outstanding achievement secured a place on next season’s World Sevens Series for a jubilant Ireland.