Rob Kearney: Scored Leinster's second try
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Leinster maintained their position at the top of the PRO12 table after their crucial 23-19 win at Cardiff Blues on Saturday.
Two early tries helped Leinster to victory against their hosts, whose inaccuracy in front of goal in the closing stages cost them dearly.
Leinster got off to the perfect start and were 14 points up within the first ten minutes.
Tries from Sean O'Brien and Rob Kearney gave the visitors an excellent platform and established a lead they would defend for the remainder of the match.
But any hopes Leinster had of killing off the game in the first half were dispelled, as Cardiff wrestled their way back into the contest courtesy of two Leigh Halfpenny penalties and a Dan Parks drop goal.
But Leinster re-affirmed their dominance in the final moments of the first half and stretched their lead to eight points with a Jonathan Sexton penalty.
The opening stages of the second half were punctuated by two penalties, with Sexton and Halfpenny on target for their respective sides, before Cardiff cut Leinster's lead down to a single point with a try just before the hour.
Gethin Jenkins was the man to put the hosts back in it, but his effort needed to be rubber stamped by the video referee first.
The Blues then missed two golden opportunities to take the lead, with two Halfpenny penalty attempts missing the target.
The first, from 40 metres out, fell short, and he screwed the second wide, much to the despair of the home crowd.
Fergus McFadden made no mistake for Leinster when the visitors were awarded a penalty for a late tackle. His goal put the visitors four points up and cemented the victory.
The scorers:
For Cardiff Blues:
Try: Jenkins
Con: Halfpenny
Pens: Halfpenny 3
Drop-goal: Parks
For Leinster:
Tries: R Kearney, O'Brien
Cons: Sexton 2
Pens: Sexton 2, McFadden
Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Tom James, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Michael Paterson, 4 Macauley Cook, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 Marc Breeze, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 John Yapp, 18 Sam Hobbs, 19 Matthew Screech, 20 Josh Navidi, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Ceri Sweeney, 23 Harry Robinson.
Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Dave Kearney 13 Fergus McFadden, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Conway, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip (c), 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Kevin McLaughlin, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Damian Browne, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Aaron Dundon, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Jamie Hagan, 19 Rhys Ruddock, 20 Leo Auva'a, 21 Isaac Boss, 22 Isa Nacewa, 23 Fionn Carr.
Venue: Cardiff City Stadium
Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR)
Comments
makemehappy says...
@tombstone - that seemed a rather confused statement!
@luvleinster - I certainly won't disagree with your McCaw comment! I do actually enjoy most of Leinsters play, and they probably are the only team that can really compete with Tolouse at the moment, in Europe. Not sure about your Sexton comment in the RWC - I'm not one for playing people out of position - but you never know what might have happened!
Posted 20:33 10th January 2012
tombomb says...
ciaran1792 my bad about the ref being french but how can i not be angry when someone says this and i quote 'I trust refs will put a stop to the Irish cheating in rucks though, I really do. It is a disgrace, and cannot be defended or argued against.'The breakdown is a nightmare with them (irish teams) and this spoils the game, year after year.' it spoils a game when the ref is not consistent throughout the game and hands out penalties for very minor things that have very little if any bearing on the game thus not allowing the game to flow
Posted 00:16 10th January 2012
luvleinster says...
ahem....."throw", not "through"
Posted 23:40 09th January 2012
luvleinster says...
@ makemehappy
kind of brushed over the ireland bit to be honest...until we get an impartial coach (ie someone not tainted by provincial bias) in charge who picks on form not on who he likes then i wont really bother with the national team...have given up on the IRFU and Kidney who made an absolute balls of the semis against the welsh, O Gara at 10 and Sexton at 12 was an ideal spanner to through into the welsh works.
Regarding the breakdown, richie mccheat has been interfering at rucks for years and getting away with it, its only a penalty if you get caught or if your reputation precedes you ala england.
Posted 23:39 09th January 2012
makemehappy says...
Very interesting comments by the Leinster fans to my post. I note they seem to ignore my remarks about the irish teams being better than the welsh! So you think that playing the ball on the floor is legal then? Very interesting. It is not the rule that you have to wait for the ref to shout an instruction. It is also quite obvious if you are on the floor that playing the ball is illegal - do you need the ref to tell you that? Very worrying! Please note that I'm not defending the result, as I would always be commenting about French or English or Scottish teams doing this.
Posted 13:15 09th January 2012
rugbylover says...
terrible ref
Posted 01:32 09th January 2012
ciaran1792 says...
Tombomb he was Italian and wow easy on the poor fella let him speak his mind. Then refer him to the Mike Philips non try in the 6 nations last year and say That the Irish dident get screwed. Now as for cheat Leinster contest till the ref screams release its a ruck then hands come off it. Ireland are also penalized unfairly for this a lot and collapsing scrums when the opposing prop is taking a step back and not binding every time. If you will go back to the 6 nations of last year the first few matches especially against the french we always get Kaplin and Joubert as refs and they ruin the match by taking the speed out of it and penalizing the wrong team every time.David Flatman for Bath did the same against Leinster in the H cup in December not binding ref penalizes wrong team. id like to see more consistency at scrum time in regards to binding.
Posted 01:09 09th January 2012
luvleinster says...
@makemehappy
pretty sure (correct me if i'm wrong though) you've been whinging about this before on other comments sections. no one else mentions it though, guess you dont understand the rules. Leinster compete in all aspects of the game to the maximum of their outstanding ability, thats why we're twice european champions. no need to be bitter at us because your welsh regions regularly perform poorly in europe and against leinster/munster (and sometimes ulster), or that your best players decamp to france at the drop of a hat. sort your own game out
Posted 21:37 08th January 2012
papachinzo says...
@makemehappy Sad excuse there buddy, They don't "Cheat" at ruck time, they compete until the referee says "ruck" at which time they release, as are the rules!
The Welsh must have their own rule book or something ?!
Posted 19:19 08th January 2012
tombomb says...
makemehappy leinster won because they were and are a better team. ref was disgraceful as i said before and im not being racist most french rugby refs are awful also whit his poor reffing prevented leinster from playing and kept cardiff in the game
Posted 18:44 08th January 2012
makemehappy says...
I do agree the ref was awful. Though that usually benefitted Leinster, as he refused to penalise their hands in the ruck, and should have indicated at least 3 yellow cards. Sadly very good irish teams who are better than the welsh teams in terms of ability, simply cheat beyond belief. The breakdown is a nightmare with them and this spoils the game, year after year.
Given the volume of fouls by Leinster, can you seriously say that the ref shouldn't have yellow carded several of their team. Its purely logical.
As for the try by Jenkins, this is the fourth try I've seen where a video ref has awarded a try in such circumstances. All the others were actually against Welsh teams. I don't understand why the video referee commits to making a decision. He couldn't say it was or wasn't a try, and had to refer it back to the referee.
There was one close up shot though that might well have shown the try - sadly I was fast forwarding that the time, and didn't have another look.
I trust refs will put a stop to the Irish cheating in rucks though, I really do. It is a disgrace, and cannot be defended or argued against.
Posted 15:35 08th January 2012
pantreac says...
Not only was it not a try but even the Welsh commentator appeared to be astonished and embarresed by some of the refs decisions. Jenkins very rarely bound in the scrums and was constantly collapsing them. The replays constantly showed that It was Jenkins not binding or collapsing that caused the problem yet this ref kept giving penalties against the dominant Leinster scrum!!!!
Posted 13:01 08th January 2012
adamk says...
Ref was terrible. Leinster were better in every position in the park. It seemed that because Leinster got the two tries he tried to even up the game. Cardiff got away with murder. Infact he was just out of his depth - he called Leinster team 'blue', 'white' and 'green' at one stage, reversed calls constantly. Credit goes to Heaslip who managed to keep the team level headed. But it should've been a BP game for had the game been allowed to flow.
Anyone watching the game wouldn't be coming back for anymore Pro12 action....
Posted 12:30 08th January 2012
BackingLeinster says...
Have to say the ref and tmo were awful. Penalty given against Mike Ross in the scrum in the 50th minute, Jenkins made no attempt to bind with the ref staring straight at him and he gave them the penalty.
Also would love to see the shot the TMO saw of the ball being grounded. I'd say it was 50/50 as to whether it was grounded or not but you can't see it unless its grounded.
Posted 08:43 08th January 2012
papachinzo says...
Referee's must be out to get Leinster or something, The Leinster players actually looked afraid to do anything, that's how 'whistle happy' he was. I don't know what the penalty count was, but I'd say it was something close to; Leinster 30 - Cardiff 6.
It's not the first time this season either, it seems as if this is going to be a regular 'away' thing...
Posted 02:04 08th January 2012
ciaran1792 says...
Ref was terrible and the tmo was a bent Jenkins was held up by Heaslip if u cant see a grounding u cant give it.
Posted 21:09 07th January 2012