LEINSTER 40 ULSTER 7

This evening at the RDS a fringe Ulster side felt the wrath of a similarly experimental Leinster, soaking up six tries with a solitary converted Adam McBurney score the only reward for their labours. The defeat, combined with wins for Benetton and Scarlets, sees Dan McFarland’s team drop to fourth in the Guinness Pro14 Conference B standings, two points behind the Italians and one behind the Welsh outfit, while Leinster now sit a full 20 points ahead of their interprovincial rivals. With perhaps an eye on next Saturday’s European showdown with Racing 92 at the Kingspan Stadium, Head Coach McFarland made no fewer than 11 changes to the first XV that lined up against Connacht last week, with centre Darren Cave, wing Angus Kernohan, out-half Johnny McPhillips and back row forward Nick Timoney the only players retaining their places. Two further Academy players joined Kernohan in the back line – namely full-back Michael Lowry and centre James Hume, while flying winger Rob Lyttle made his first start in 10 months after recovering from a long-term injury lay-off. McPhillips and scrum-half David Shanahan – Ulster’s top try-scorer in the Guinness Pro14 with five to his name thus far – completed the back seven. In the pack, Wiehahn Herbst made his first appearance since sustaining an injury in September, lining up in the front row alongside loosehead Kyle McCall and hooker McBurney. Skipper Alan O’Connor got his first start in a month in the second row shoulder to shoulder with Academy player Matthew Dalton, while in the back row Greg Jones and Sean Reidy flanked Number Eight Timoney. Notable among the replacements were Banbridge forward Caleb Montgomery and Ballymena out-half Bruce Houston, both vying for their first senior cap from the bench. Early Leinster errors – a surrendered kick-off and failure to reach touch with a penalty – went unpunished, and the hosts soon settled into their game, going through 25 phases until Sean Cronin found a fissure in the Ulster rearguard and stretched over to score on seven minutes. Ciarán Frawley – nominally Leinster’s third-choice out-half behind Johnny Sexton and Ross Byrne, a replacement today – put away the extras, and was adding his second conversion six minutes later after Cronin had bullied his way through Shanahan and Lowry inches from the try-line for a fine individual score. Better from Ulster saw their locks combine dangerously in the home ‘22’ just before the close of the first quarter, and although they lost Lowry to a head injury sustained in the move, with Peter Nelson taking over full-back duties, McBurney showed strength and determination to stretch over from a subsequent rolling maul. However the dust had barely settled after the McPhillips conversion before Leinster were touching down again, needing only four passes from a well-worked restart for centre Conor O’Brien to waltz through a brittle-looking Ulster defence. This time Frawley’s kick was well off-target – his first miss of the season – and McPhillips’ aim was similarly askew as he screwed a central 28^th-minute penalty wide of the posts. As the Leinster penalty count ramped up, Ulster elected for touch twice in a row, but lost the first at the lineout throw, and the second after O’Connor lost his temper in the maul and squared up to his opposite number Mick Kearney a little too aggressively for referee Andrew Brace’s liking. Another lineout turnover moments before the break brought more danger to the Ulster ‘22’, and although a Kernohan interception as Leinster edged towards the corner initially repelled the threat, another rolling maul deep in stoppage time brought Andrew Porter the bonus-point try. Half-Time Score Leinster 26 Ulster 7 A painful-looking twist to the left knee for McCall put an end to the prop’s evening within eight minutes of the restart, bringing Andrew Warwick into the pack, while Houston made his bow in place of Kernohan at the same stage. A fifth Leinster try disallowed on 50 minutes for a knock-on in the build-up did little to dampen the spirits of the men in blue, who eventually topped up their tally just after the hour mark when Jamison Gibson-Park picked up from the back of a close-range scrum and crept over the line. Montgomery came on for his debut of 15 minutes game time in place of O’Connor, but indefatigable Leinster saw out the match in the quest of try number six, eventually sealed by means of a penalty try as Ulster struggled to repel a last-minute try. While the Ulster performance may not have been as poor as the scoreline suggests, much better will be needed in a week’s time when French superstars Racing come to the Kingspan Stadium to contest the top spot in Pool Four of the Heineken Champions Cup. Full-Time Score Leinster 40 Ulster 7 Leinster (15 – 9) Rob Kearney; Adam Byrne, Conor O’Brien, Noel Reid, Barry Daly; Ciarán Frawley, Jamison Gibson-Park (1 – 8) Jack McGrath, Seán Cronin, Andrew Porter, Ross Molony, Mick Kearney, Josh Murphy, Scott Penny, Max Deegan Replacements (16 – 23) James Tracy, Ed Byrne, Michael Bent, Oisín Dowling, Caelan Doris, Hugh O’Sullivan, Ross Byrne, Jimmy O’Brien Ulster (15 – 9) Michael Lowry; Rob Lyttle, Darren Cave, James Hume, Angus Kernohan; Johnny McPhillips, David Shanahan (1 – 8) Kyle McCall, Adam McBurney, Wiehahn Herbst, Matthew Dalton, Alan O’Connor (c), Greg Jones, Sean Reidy, Nick Timoney Replacements (16 – 23) John Andrew, Andrew Warwick, Tom O’Toole, Caleb Montgomery, Clive Ross, Jonny Stewart, Bruce Houston, Peter Nelson