Incredible Leinster complete perfect season in PRO14

David Skippers
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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.

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 week’s win over Munster, produced a clinical two-try finish as replacements Scott Penny and Harry Byrne both crossed late on.

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 line-out 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 a late 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.

Things finally clicked for Ulster in the 53rd minute, a penalty kicked to the corner and a well-executed catch-and-drive saw 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.

Ross Byrne’s younger brother Harry steered Leinster home, though, 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.

Cooney did all the hard work in running in a terrific intercept try from 65 metres out – only to be caught offside at the ruck on the TMO review.

And it was left to the younger Byrne to crash over from a few metres out in the 78th minute, adding the conversion himself for an 18-point winning margin.

Earlier in the evening, the Scarlets moved into second place in Conference B of the PRO14 after a rousing second-half performance saw them overwhelm the Dragons 41-20 at Rodney Parade.

Prop Samson Lee, wings Steff Evans and Johnny McNicholl, flanker James Davies and replacements Tom Rogers and Dane Blacker all crossed the line in an impressive display by the visitors, while Dan Jones booted four conversions and a penalty.

Wing Jared Rosser, flanker Taine Basham and centre Adam Warren grabbed the Dragons’ tries, with fly-half Sam Davies kicking a penalty and conversion, but they came up short after a promising start.

An entertaining opening half saw the lead change hands three times and the Scarlets seemed ready to pull away before the home team fought back to within a few points.

Davies put the Dragons ahead with a penalty after 13 minutes but a frantic eight-minute spell saw the scores change from 3-0 to a 14-10 lead for the visitors.

The Scarlets, with Wales hooker Ken Owens playing his 250th match to become only the second player to reach that milestone for the West Wales team in the regional era, had chances to score and put Jake Ball through only for play to be called back by referee Craig Evans.

However, a big attacking line-out and drive from the visitors left Lee with space to go over from a couple of metres for a converted try.

The Dragons hit back when pressure inside the 22 saw the ball pushed left and brought a two-on-one, with Basham setting up Rosser for a simple touchdown that Davies converted.

Yet the Scarlets struck again as a big drive in the home 22 allowed lively scrum-half Kieran Hardy the chance to slip the ball to Davies, who shipped it to Evans for the touchdown.

And with Jones adding the extras and Davies being driven over by his pack for a third Scarlets try, it was going well for the visitors.

However, in the last seconds of the half, Basham had the ball in a driving maul to go over as the Dragons closed the gap to 19-15.

After home number eight Harrison Keddie had been sin-binned for a ruck offence, Sione Kalamafoni thought he had scored for the Scarlets when diving over a pile of bodies to touch down only for the TMO to rule it out.

But the bonus-point try did come before the hour when a grubber kick to the home danger zone saw Wales cap McNicholl pounce, with Jones again converting.

A simple Jones penalty and two more Scarlets tries, from Rogers and Blacker, sealed the result before Warren got a consolation corner try for the Dragons two minutes from time.

Dragons