February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Currently seven points adrift of leaders the Neath-Swansea Ospreys, Leinster were looking for a convincing win despite starting without several international players, such as Brian O’Driscoll, Denis Hickie and Malcolm O’Kelly, but they were fortunate in the end to scrape through.
The deciding moment came in the final moment when Felipe Contepomi landed his third penalty, though nine points in total was a paltry return for Leinster’s territorial dominance throughout.
Too many scoring opportunities were squandered either by mistakes or poor passing, and while Aidan McCullen and David Blaney both had the best chances, they were foiled by excellent tackles by Kevin Maggs and Matt McCullough.
There was much interest in Gordon D’Arcy’s first start following injury and if there were one or two trademark touches, Ireland’s Player of the Year was unable to make a major impact in the wet conditions.
Less predictable perhaps was the sight of Brian O’Driscoll, who came on as a replacement just before halftime, being yellow carded following a dust-up with Ulster wing Tyrone Howe.
Without the injured David Humphreys, Ulster’s place kicking duties fell to Adam Larkin, who landed an early penalty, and despite Leinster’s overall control, they were still behind coming up to the changeover when D’Arcy threw a loose pass and Howe capitalized to score the contest’s only try.
Trailing by 8-0 and looking less and less likely to break through a stubborn Ulster defense, Leinster began to claw back the deficit with the first of Contepomi’s penalties. When coach Declan Kidney sent on the international trio of Shane Byrne, Eric Miller and O’Kelly, the winners were able to establish enough good field positions for Contepomi to add to more penalties.
MUNSTER 3, GALWAY 0
The weather was even worse in Galway where Munster maintained their challenge with a 3-0 triumph over Connacht. Paul Burke’s first-half penalty was enough to keep Munster in second place in the table just a single point behind the Ospreys.
Although Munster gave opportunities behind the scrum to the likes of Paul Devlin, Jason Holland, James Storey and Eoin Reddan, but six of the forwards who were on European Cup duty started in a gale force wind and numbing cold.
Munster did manage to create several chances only for Connacht’s defense to hold firm. They were under intense pressure on two occasions when Anthony Foley was held up over the try line, and when prop John Hayes was mysteriously penalized as the winners’ scrum edged toward the line.
“We wanted to play rugby,” said coach Alan Gaffney, “but we couldn’t get the ball out wide in the treacherous conditions. Certainly not a classic game, but we were happy enough to get a result. Five times we got into scoring positions, and although they defended very well, they were chances we didn’t take.”
Connacht, for whom scrum-half Tom Tierney was impressive, did have a penalty chance after 53 minutes, but Paul Warwick was short from 50 yards. Christian Short came nearest to a try when he blocked down a Burke clearance, but he failed to gather the ball near the line.
“Munster controlled possession much the better in the last 20 minutes,” Connacht coach Michael Bradley said. “We couldn’t really get our hands on the ball, and when we did we couldn’t retain it.”
The defeat leaves Connacht in joint sixth place in the Celtic League table.