The Lions produced a poor finish to their vital United Rugby Championship (URC) match against defending champs Leinster, falling to a disappointing 31-7 loss at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night.
It ended a superb six-match winning run for the Lions that brought them into URC top four contention, but this defeat now means they still have more work to do in their final pool game against Munster in Limerick next weekend.
The biggest disappointment for the Lions will be that despite Leinster not being at their best for most of the match, they couldn’t capitalise despite keeping themselves in range, before completely falling apart at the death.
It was a disastrous start to the match for the Lions, with Leinster scoring a fortuitous early try when a poor offload came off the knee of Jamie Osborne, who managed to kick ahead chase and score to put them 7-0 up in the third minute.
Two minutes later they were dealt a further blow when in-form flank Ruan Venter was forced off with a painful looking knee injury.
A few dodgy decisions then went against the Lions which allowed Leinster to go further ahead, with the first seeing a stunning try from flank Siba Mahashe chalked off after the TMO and ref ruled that wing Erich Cronje had played the nine from an offside position at a ruck.
From that penalty Leinster got into the Lions 22m and attacked, with prop Tom Clarkson getting close, but with him trying to play the ball back after it looked like he was short, ref Hollie Davidson awarded a try as the bemused looking Clarkson claimed it.
Back into game
Prendergast’s conversion made it 14-0 after 25 minutes, but a strong finish to the half brought the Lions back into the game.
The Lions best attacking phase of the half was rewarded, after some great carries ended with captain Francke Horn being powered through a couple of tackle attempts by lock Reinhard Nothnagel and pushed over the line, converted by flyhalf Chris Smith which made it 14-7 at the break.
The first 30 minutes of the second was a monstrous arm wrestle, as both sides had chances in each other’s 22m, but neither could make the break through as they both made mistakes at crucial times.
But Leinster then turned it on in the final 10 minutes to power away to a massively important bonus point win.
First in the 70th minute Leinster put some daylight between the teams, after a good attack in the Lions half saw outside centre Rieko Ioane break and offload to replacement back Hugo Keenan to dive in at the corner, with fullback Ciaran Frawley adding the extras.
Four minutes later from a scrum in their own half Leinster attacked, replacement back Hugh Cooney broke away and then put in Ioane for the fourth try, to put them 26-7 up.
Leinster then closed out the win in style with a third try in the final 10 minutes, as wing Jimmy O’Brien ghosted through for the score and stamp
Scorers
Leinster: Tries – Jamie Osborne, Tom Clarkson, Hugo Keenan, Rieko Ioane, Jimmy O’Brien; Conversions – Sam Prendergast (2), Ciaran Frawley
Lions: Try – Francke Horn; Conversion – Chris Smith
