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Leinster complete perfect regular season with victory over Ulster

By PA
(Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Guinness PRO14 title favourites Leinster completed a 15-match regular-season winning streak with a 28-10 victory over Ulster at the Aviva Stadium. Captaining Leinster for the first time in a competitive game, Ed Byrne led by example with an early try and Ross Byrne kicked the other points for a 13-0 half-time lead.

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The two Irish provinces were already assured of their semi-final places next week, and Ulster, who travel to Edinburgh in the last four, battled back with a Rob Herring maul try to make it 16-7.

John Cooney’s 67th-minute penalty reduced the deficit further but Leinster, despite a fully-changed squad from last weekend’s win over Munster, produced a clinical two-try finish as replacements Scott Penny and Harry Byrne both crossed late on.

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RugbyPass brings you Game Day, the behind the scenes documentary on the 2018 Guinness PRO14 final between Leinster and Scarlets

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RugbyPass brings you Game Day, the behind the scenes documentary on the 2018 Guinness PRO14 final between Leinster and Scarlets

The ‘away’ team were quickest out of the blocks, with man-of-the-match Ciaran Frawley managing to scramble onto his own grubber kick before prop Byrne, with solid support from Max Deegan and Will Connors, burrowed over for a second-minute converted score.

Costly penalties and turnovers hampered Ulster’s progress, although a strong Jacob Stockdale run sparked some quicker ball. Yet entering the second quarter, Leinster were already 13 points up after fly-half Ross Byrne had landed two well-struck penalties.

A fine steal by Ross Molony foiled a five-metre lineout for Ulster, whose talismanic scrum-half Cooney also endured a couple of frustrating errors. Leinster were leaving the physical imprint with Connors driving Ian Madigan backwards and Josh Murphy’s excellent maul defence thwarting an Ulster attack.

Successive scrum penalties either side of the interval kept Leinster on course, with Byrne opening the second half with three more points. Ulster could not profit from a Cooney break, set up by an otherwise well-marshalled Marcell Coetzee.

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Things finally clicked for them, though, in the 53rd minute, a penalty kicked to the corner and a well-executed catch-and-drive seeing hooker Herring power over for Cooney to convert. Responding to injuries picked up by Stockdale and Jordi Murphy, Ulster’s bench drove on their comeback bid with the fast ruck ball and improved angles of running leading to a Cooney three-pointer for 16-10.

But Ross Byrne’s younger brother Harry steered Leinster home as they prepare for a Dublin semi-final date with either Munster or Scarlets. The 21-year-old’s inviting cross-field kick found open territory and the fresh-legged Penny finished well past Louis Ludik with 72 minutes gone.

Then, after Cooney did all the hard work running in a terrific intercept try from 65 metres out only to be caught offside at the ruck on the TMO review, it was left to the younger Byrne to crash over from a few metres out in the 78th minute and he added the conversion himself for an 18-point winning margin.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Crusaders outlast fast starting Blues to reach another Super Rugby final

Yeah nar, but that’s kinda the thing, I don’t think the old approach was working either!


You might have it right though, leading up, in all rugby/competitions mean, to the last WC it did feel like there had been better discipline/less than the normal amount of cards. Well, at least a certain demographic of teams improved at least, but not so much NZ ones is my point.


I bet you also think going harsher would be the best way to go reducing head contact and the frequency of concussions?


I would hate to have your theory tested as it requires subjective thinking from the officials but..

AI Overview

In Super Rugby Pacific, a red card means the player is sent off for the rest of the match, but with a 20-minute red card, the team can replace the player after 20 minutes of playing with 14 men. If the foul play is deemed deliberate and with a high degree of danger, a full red card is issued, and the player cannot be replaced. A second yellow card also results in a 20-minute red card with a replacement allowed. 

is there to stop that from happening. The whole subjective thing is why we have 20min cards, and I worry that the same leniency that stopped them from red carding a player who ran 30 meters and still didn’t get his head low enough would stop them straight redn them too.


Back to the real topic though, right after that WC we saw those same angles getting red carded all over the show. So do some players actually have control over their actions enough to avoid head collisions (and didn’t gaf after the WC?), or was it pure luck or an imaginary period of good discipline?


So without a crystal ball to know the truth of it I think you’ll find it an immeasurably better product with 20m red cards, there just does not appear to be any appropriate amount of discipline added to the back end, the suspensions (likely controlled by WR), yet.

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