Ireland flanker Dan Leavy plays a starring role on first start in 19 months as Leinster put eight tries past Edinburgh
Dan Leavy capped his first start since March 2019 with a try as Leinster handed out another Guinness Pro14 hiding at the RDS, Leo Cullen’s side scoring eight tries against Edinburgh in a 50-10 win. Having made three appearances off the bench this season, Ireland flanker Leavy was back in the starting XV for the first time since suffering a serious knee injury in a Champions Cup win over Ulster over 19 months ago.
And Leavy made his intent clear from the start, emptying Edinburgh’s Jack Blain with a huge tackle after just two minutes. It set the tone for another dominant performance by the Pro14 champions, who haven’t lost a game in the competition since April 2019.
His display will certainly please Ireland head coach Andy Farrell, while the return of dynamic second-row Ryan Baird will also have been noted, having replaced Leavy in the second half. Baird is uncapped at Test level but was initially named in the Ireland squad for the recent Six Nations fixtures against Italy and France, only to drop out through injury.
Leavy was named man of the match despite a second-half hat-trick from wing Cian Kelleher.
The province opened their account here with a typically free-flowing move on 13 minutes. Having gained possession from an overthrown Edinburgh lineout the ball was moved across the pitch to full-back Jimmy O’Brien, who burst down the left at pace before a neat kick into space.
Leavy was on hand to win the turnover in the Edinburgh 22 and the ball was recycled out to O’Brien, who supplied the deft chip behind for Dave Kearney to dot down. Ciaran Frawley stood over the conversation but his kick was taken by the wind.
Kearney was heavily involved in Leinster’s second, too, taking a flat pass on the wing and drawing in the last defender before playing in Luke McGrath, who was left with a clean sprint through.
Burns was out-half on the England team which won the Junior World Championship in 2014.https://t.co/V5mSHDigK6
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Edinburgh finally got on the scoreboard through a Nathan Chamberlain penalty just after the half-hour mark, but any hopes of a fightback were short-lived.
The home side gained the momentum again and killed the game with a quick-fire brace before half-time, Peter Dooley powering over from close range before McGrath bagged his second of the evening after a scintillating step and one-hand offload from Frawley.
Frawley kicked the extras and Leinster went at half-time 26-3 up with the bonus point secured.
It took them just two minutes to add a fifth try after the break, and it was man of the moment Leavy touching down under the posts.
Things went from bad to worse for the victors as they lost Eroni San to the sin bin for a deliberate knock on. Leinster made them pay with try number six, Harry Byrne’s perfectly measured cross-field kick touched down by the diving Cian Kelleher.
Kelleher bagged his second try of the night five minutes later as Leinster took full advantage of their extra man.
Nic Groom poached a late consolation score for the visitors, but the game had long been over as a contest, and Kelleher wrapped up his hat-trick as the game entered the final five minutes.
Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments