URC: Leinster 36 Stormers 12
Two tries and a prominent performance in all facets of the game on his return from an ACL injury made Leinster captain Dan Sheehan’s candidacy for man of the match proved irresistible on a night when the home side racked up a decent victory in trying conditions of a wet ball and surface that challenged the skill sets of both sides.
Leinster’s high-profile players stood tall, Sheehan, Jordie Barrett, James Lowe, Rabah Slimani and RG Snyman were conspicuously prominent in the team’s better moments but Max Deegan, Scott Penny and Brian Deeny also made strong contributions, as did Charlie Tector and Cormac Foley in particular from the bench.
The contest was pockmarked by mistakes and the whistle of referee Eoghan Cross, who awarded 30 penalties and four free-kicks but didn’t go to his pocket for a card. He tried to give the players every chance, but they didn’t reciprocate. It made for a staccato affair.
Sheehan, Lowe and Jack Boyle, who had a decent 60 minutes, will head for Portugal in the morning to link up with the Ireland squad.
Despite the pregame downpour Leinster started brightly, fullback Henry McErlean kicked a lovely 50-22, Sheehan threw over the top to Barrett, who broke two tackles, but the move petered out with a handling error from Snyman.
The home side continued to dominate possession and territory and were rewarded with the first try of the match on 10 minutes. Number eight Deegan twice got over the gainline, but it was Barrett that had the definitive input as he drifted past Manie Libbok and gave Andrew Osborne an easy run-in for a try.
Ross Byrne kicked a superb touchline conversion to go with an earlier penalty and at 10-0 there was a general expectation that Leinster would kick on. That never materialised for a variety of reasons, primarily because the half was pockmarked by penalties (13) and several free-kicks, with barely a scrum or breakdown completed without Cross whistling for an infringement.
The Stormers grabbed a foothold in the game on the back of Leinster’s indiscipline. Deeny and Penny made some important tackles, but the visitors were able to piggyback on mistakes to keep the pressure on.
From a scrum, on penalty advantage, the Stormers marched forward, and when the ball was moved wide Libbok’s long pass and Warrick Gelant’s quick hands sent the former London Irish wing Ben Loader scampering over in the corner. Libbok’s touchline conversion was a doozy, the Stormers deserving of their score.
Sheehan produced a thumping tackle on Libbok and then charged down the outhalf soon after. The home side lost Liam Turner and Luke McGrath to injury, replaced by Tector and Foley, the two backs on the bench.
Barrett again brought a touch of class to the proceedings, his show-and-go taking him through a gap. Lowe then performed the same manoeuvre but with two men outside and deep inside the Stormers 22, he delayed a fraction too long and was chopped down in a tackle that he didn’t see coming.
In first-half injury-time, Leinster were awarded another scrum penalty, then a free-kick at the ensuing lineout and from there launched their most cogent attacking moment of the half unencumbered by an error.
Tector and Snyman did the heavy lifting in terms of carries, McErlean and Barrett provided the quick hands and then Lowe gave Sheehan a chance to outrun the cover over the final 22 metres which is exactly what the Leinster hooker and captain did, before sliding over in the corner. It put a gloss on a matt first-half display.
Cross’s whistle was again prominent early in the second half, with Leinster winning a couple inside the Stormers 22. But the visitors were gutsy in defence and managed to repel everything right up to the point that hooker Joseph Dweba won an excellent breakdown turnover penalty five metres from his line.
Sheehan’s crooked throw cost his side a chance from a five-metre lineout and the Stormers subsequently forced a scrum penalty. The tit-for-tat infringements showed no sign of abatingm even when the Stormers captain Deon Fourie was given a general warning on 57 minutes after his side conceded another penalty.
Sheehan took the tap penalty and Penny showed vision and accuracy to deliver the try-scoring pass to Barrett. Byrne converted and he would do so again soon after. Deegan made inroads on one side and Lowe’s crosskick to the unmarked Sheehan was perfect, enabling the hooker to touch down for his second and the bonus-point try.
Lowe had a try disallowed, Sheehan departed to a great ovation as both coaches went to their benches, which required a little lateral thinking for Leo Cullen. Fullback McErlean was replaced by flanker Will Connors, a reshuffle which saw Penny move to scrumhalf.
Two more scrum penalties to Leinster, numbers 23 and 24 of the game, gave them a chance to pound away on the Stormers line but it took a sharp intercept from Osborne on the line to grab his side’s fifth try.
The Stormers managed the final score of the match when Evan Roos profited from a tight, driving maul to barge over. It won’t have been much consolation.
Leinster move on, having neatly sidestepped what could have been, and was for a while, a tricky assignment.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 3 mins: Byrne pen, 3-0; 10: Osborne try, Byrne con, 10-0; 20: Loader try, Libbok con, 10-7; 40 (+1): Sheehan try, 15-7. Half-time: 15-7. 58: Barrett try, Byrne con, 22-7; 61: Sheehan try, Byrne con, 29-7; 67: Osborne try, Byrne con, 36-7; 78: Roos try, 36-12.
LEINSTER: H McErlean; A Osborne, L Turner, J Barrett, J Lowe; R Byrne, L McGrath; J Boyle, D Sheehan (capt), R Slimani; RG Snyman, B Deeny; A Soroka, S Penny, M Deegan.
Replacements: C Tector for Turner (28 mins); C Foley for McGrath (HIA, 38); D Mangan for Deeny (55); J Culhane for Soroka (59); P McCarthy for Boyle (60); J McKee for Sheehan (61); W Connors for McErlean (64); R McGuire for Slimani (70); Deeny for Foley (76).
STORMERS: W Gelant; B Loader, R Nel, J Roche, L Zas; M Libbok, P de Wet; A Vermaak, J Dweba, N Fouche; JD Schickerling, R van Heerden; D Fourie, B-J Dixon, E Roos.
Replacements: S Moerat for Schickerling (29 mins); W Simelane for Libbok (38); A-H Venter for Dweba (58); P de Villiers for Fourie (59); H Jantjies for de Wet (63); B Harris for Fourche, M Theunissen for Dixon (both 64 mins).
Referee: E Cross (IRFU).
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to the Counter Ruck podcast for the best rugby chat and analysis
