Pro12: Leinster 23-34 Munster
- Published
Leinster (9) 23 |
Tries: Fanning, penalty try Cons Madigan 2 Pens: Madigan 3 |
Munster (28) 34 |
Tries: Cronin, Copeland, Keatley Cons Keatley 2; Pens Keatley 4, Hanrahan |
Munster achieved their first away win over Leinster since 2008 with an exciting Pro12 victory at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night.
The visitors scored tries in the first half by James Cronin, Robin Copeland and Ian Keatley.
Leinster mounted a late revival and got tries through winger Darragh Fanning and a penalty try.
Munster had four men sin-binned in the second half but closed out the win to move up to fourth in the table.
They are seven points behind leaders Ospreys but three ahead of rivals Leinster who are in sixth place.
The result is a timely boost to Munster coach Anthony Foley who had made eight chances from the home defeat by the Ospreys a week earlier.
Leinster's Ian Madigan and Munster fly-half Keatley exchanged early penalties to leave it 6-6 after 16 minutes.
But for the rest of the half Munster were in dream land, scoring three tries before the break to take a stranglehold on the all-Ireland affair.
Munster had come close to an early try but the TMO ruled scrum-half Conor Murray's attempted touchdown under the posts had been held by Eoin Reddan.
However, Munster did cross the line in the 20th minute when Cronin took a nice line and accepted Murray's lay-off to get over.
Keatley missed the conversion and but landed his third penalty to give the visitors a handy 14-6 advantage.
Former Cardiff Blues number eight Copeland forced his way over under the posts for his first try in a Munster jersey and Keatley's conversion made it 21-6.
Madigan landed his third penalty from three attempts for Leinster and they were pressing for a try to get right back into contention when a loose pass by fly-half Jimmy Gopperth was intercepted by Keatley who raced unopposed to the line.
The conversion gave Munster a 19-point half-time lead.
That is how it stayed until the final quarter when Leinster found themselves with a two-man advantage after yellow cards for Damien Varley and fellow replacement front rower BJ Botha.
Within seconds of Botha's binning, Leinster got their try when winger Fanning broke through a gap in the visitors' defensive line to score under the posts.
Leinster looked to have a great chance to cut further into the lead but Keatley stemmed the comeback with a penalty just before replacement hooker Varley's return to the field.
More drama unfolded as Leinster were awarded a penalty try when Dave Foley brought down a rolling maul to become the third Munster man sin-binned.
That left just eight points in it with 10 minutes left, but Munster got a crucial score when replacement JJ Hanrahan landed a penalty with the last score of the match.
In the closing moments, scrum-half Conor Murray became the fourth Munster man to see a yellow card for illegally disrupting a Leinster surge.
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