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Victor Matfield: 'He showed why he's probably the best Springbok of all time'
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Red carded Leinster see off Ulster, Bulls and Edinburgh win
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Leinster held off a stirring Ulster fightback to climb to third place in the United Rugby Championship courtesy of a thrilling 29-21 bonus-point win in Belfast.
Leo Cullen’s side were cruising to victory at Affidea Stadium after tries from James Culhane and Jimmy O’Brien, plus a penalty and conversion from Sam Prendergast, helped them into a 15-0 half-time lead.
The hosts, who lost prop Angus Bell and centre James Hume to early injuries, fell further behind when Robbie Henshaw powered over in the 46th minute.
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Ulster’s replacement lock Harry Sheridan was then sin-binned due to his side conceding a string of penalties before Leinster fly-half Prendergast converted his own score, having darted over in the 51st minute to secure the bonus point and put the dominant visitors 29-0 in front.
Bryn Ward crossed to give Ulster hope before a quick-fire double from his brother Zac Ward and Nathan Doak’s three successful conversions cut Leinster’s lead to just eight points.
Leinster’s Max Deegan had a yellow card for tackling Werner Kok in the air upgraded to a 20-minute red card amid the major momentum swing but the away side clung on to leapfrog their opponents in the table.
Over in Scotland Boan Venter’s late try snatched Edinburgh a 31-30 victory over Zebre as the pendulum swung one way and then another at the Hive Stadium in the United Rugby Championship.
Edinburgh capitalised from a line-out to open the scoring through Connor Boyle but Zebre got themselves on level terms five minutes later when Alessandro Fusco darted over following a succession of penalties.
Zebre got their noses in front when Simone Geis went over in the corner but their lead was short lived, Malelili Satala passed over to Hector Patterson on debut who made it 14-12 to Edinburgh.
The hosts extended their advantage to seven points when Ewan Ashman powered through three defenders to score but Zebre cut that deficit to four on the stroke of the break through a Giovanni Montemauri penalty.
Zebre retook the lead five minutes into the second half after Jacopo Trulla received an offload and ran over but again they were not in the lead for long – Edinburgh drove the maul and Ashman was there to finish things off for his second of the night.
Zebre made it a one-point game when Montemauri slotted another penalty and then Matteo Nocera’s try put Zebre in position for a third win of the competition until Venter’s late effort gave Edinburgh the chance for the win and Cammy Scott’s conversion snatched the points.
Meanwhile, the Bulls picked up a third successive victory in the United Rugby Championship with a comprehensive 47-7 victory over struggling Dragons.
Bulls put themselves in front in the 11th minute when Embrose Papier sneaked himself over the whitewash but the Dragons pulled level a little over 10 minutes later when Fine Inisi raced away to score from the halfway line.
That was all the joy the Dragons had as the Bulls managed to get the lead and did not look back, Johan Grobbelaar touching down following a well-worked lineout to make it 12-7 at the break.
Bulls ran in five more tries in a one-sided second half and it started with Marcell Coetzee crashing over four minutes after the interval.
The visitors got their fourth after the Dragons lost the ball in their 22 and a penalty allowed the Bulls to tap and go which Marco van Staden powered over from.
Bulls did not rest on their laurels and scored three more times in five minutes, they made it 33-7 when Van Staden barged over for his second of the night before Devon Williams rounded off a super counter attack to help put 40 on the board and Sergeal Petersen rounded off the scoring.
