O’Brien Saves Best For Last As Leinster Bring Connacht’s Season To A Close

Already assured of a home quarter-final, Leinster’s 33-7 bonus point win over Connacht at the RDS Arena was good enough for a third place finish in the BKT United Rugby Championship.

Sam Prendergast, an influential figure for the winners throughout at out-half, converted tries from Jack Conan, Jimmy O’Brien, and Ciarán Frawley for a 21-0 half-time lead.

Less than a week on from their Investec Champions Cup final heartbreak, Leo Cullen’s men lost Michael Ala’alatoa to the sin bin but fellow replacement Dan Sheehan and O’Brien, with a blistering 73rd-minute solo score, wrapped up a convincing victory.

Young reserve scrum half Colm Reilly ran in a cracking lone effort for Connacht, whose already slim play-off hopes evaporated on a night when their hooker Dave Heffernan made his 200th appearance.

With Munster and the Vodacom Bulls both registering bonus point victories this weekend, Leinster, who have retained the Irish Shield, missed out on a top-two finish in the table. They will host Ulster in an all-Irish quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 5pm).

Speaking in the aftermath, Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins said: “It was disappointing, and frustrating as well, because I felt we would have had more opportunities if we’d done a couple of things better and the importance of winning your contacts in attack and defence, against a very good Leinster team, in a game where it’s super important we get off to a good start so that we can start to build a score.

“We needed to get a win, preferably a bonus point win. In that first half, Leinster dominated the contact area, from attack and defence.

“As a result of that we were chasing shadows for long periods. We dug ourselves in a hole, I thought that improved after half-time, after something of a rev up but that’s too late. It’s too late in most games if you are 21-0 down but particularly against a team of this calibre.”

Leinster’s retiring back rower Rhys Ruddock was involved as a lineout jumper and ball carrier in the build-up to Conan’s opening try. The number 8 crossed with a powerful finish off a scrum, and Prendergast tagged on the conversion.

Making his first start for Connacht, Argentinian international Santiago Cordero showed some nice touches in attack, although he mishandled to end one promising early move at the edge of the hosts’ 22.

Connacht captain Jack Carty also overcooked a couple of kicks, and along with some scrum issues, the westerners’ defence was badly cut open from a lineout on the quarter hour mark, as Frawley and Prendergast combined crisply to put O’Brien over.

Leinster picked up their third try via another lineout in the 22nd minute, this time Rónan Kelleher and skipper Scott Penny combining at the front before Conan cut through and offloaded for Frawley to finish off.

Although Connacht’s attack was sharpened up during the second quarter by David Hawkshaw, Cordero, and Caolin Blade, who had returned from a HIA, Tommy O’Brien denied Cian Prendergast with a brilliant try-scoring tackle before the interval.

Wilkins’ charges kept pressing and went close again, early in the second period. Flanker Conor Oliver showed the initial enterprise with a chip and chase, and Cordero followed up with an acrobatic volley that almost created a try for the supporting Blade.

Nonetheless, it was Leinster, and their forwards, who managed to exert more pressure coming up to the hour mark. They hammered away close in, no doubt inspired by the emotional standing ovation which Ruddock received when he was replaced in the 48th minute.

Ed Byrne was held up just short and Rob Russell knocked on when the ball was swung wide, the resilient Connacht defence holding firm until Michael Milne’s eye-catching break and kick through gave Leinster field position again.

Cian Prendergast came up with a terrific turnover penalty right on Connacht’s line, and it was a double blow for the home side with Ala’alatoa seeing yellow for his shoulder contact with Blade’s face at a ruck.

However, with Connacht left to rue a lost lineout and another penalty, Leinster eventually chalked up the bonus point. Sheehan broke off a 62nd-minute lineout maul to thunder over from just five metres out.

Connacht replied with an excellent team try, Oliver sparking a break down the right and taking Shane Jennings’ well-timed offload to send Reilly scampering in behind the posts. Tom Daly added the extras.

Fittingly, Leinster saved the best for last, though, as Jimmy O’Brien, continuing his impressive late season form, burned off the Connacht cover with a rapid 80-metre run-in, which was topped off by Prendergast’s fourth successful conversion.

Leinster were particularly potent from lineouts, but it was O’Brien’s moment of individual magic during the closing stages that will be the lasting memory from this interprovincial clash.

Invited forward by out-half Prendergast, he outpaced the covering Cathal Forde and weaved infield, turning on the afterburners to break in between Jennings and Hawkshaw and go over untouched.

This was Leinster’s final outing at the RDS before its redevelopment, and lock Ross Molony, who is leaving for Bath in the summer, signed off at the Ballsbridge venue with a BKT URC player-of-the-match performance.

Molony’s one-handed lineout catch before Sheehan’s bonus point try was a particular highlight. Two-try full-back O’Brien was also a key performer for Leinster, while back row pair Cian Prendergast and Oliver were the pick of Connacht players.

Giving his assessment of the game as his side move on to the play-offs, Cullen admitted: “With a very short week, we only really had one proper training session so cohesion was always going to be a bit of a challenge. Overall (we) started the game with good intent.

“It’s a big thing, you see some of the guys that are moving on at the end of the season for lots of different reasons, and it means a hell of a lot to them. So, a difficult week and the lads should be proud of themselves, how they’ve applied themselves.

“It’s nice that they got a positive result as well. The performance was far from perfect, you go to 21-0 but it felt like it was 21-0 for a long time there. We failed to push on and failed to deliver on some of the basics that you need to do to pull away from any team really at this level.

“But overall, we talked about there being a mix of some guys who have been a bit unlucky with selection, some young guys coming into the team as well and some guys that were involved in the matchday 23 in the Champions Cup final as well.

“So, it’s trying to marry those three groups and overall we’re pleased to get a win. It’s five points and we’ll see where we sit (in the top four) at this time tomorrow night (Saturday).”