United Rugby Championship: Leinster clinch dramatic late win over Lions

Leinster number eight Max Deegan is held up by Ruben Schoeman on the Lions line

Leinster secured a dramatic late 39-36 comeback win against Lions in the penultimate round of the URC in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The hosts led 26-14 lead at the break but the leaders fought back and Sam Prendergast won it with a late penalty on his Leinster debut.

Leo Cullen's side sit top of the table and are uncatchable with only one game left to play in the regular season.

The defeat means Lions cannot qualify for the play-offs.

With their play-off place secured heading into the business end of the season, the visitors opted to select a side with a mix of youth and experience against a Lions side that needed a win to stand any chance of making it to the play-offs.

Vakh Abdaladze and Liam Turner touched down for Leinster in the first half and Edwill Van Der Merwe, Johnny Lombard, Marius Louw and Francke Horn scored for the hosts to give them a 12-point lead at half-time.

A penalty-try and a penalty from Samele Nohamba was not enough for the Lions in the second half as Leinster fought their way back with scores from Michael Milne, Rob Russell, Chris Cosgrave and a late penalty from debutant Sam Prendergast, this year's U20 Grand Slam-winning fly-half.

Leinster got off to a blistering start with prop Abdeladze, who picked an excellent line and received a perfect flat pass from Prendergast to cut through the Lions defence and crash over.

Lions grew back into the contest and Van Der Merwe finished a fantastic solo run in their first real attacking move of the game.

Uncharacteristic errors from Leinster and a loose pass allowed Lombard to capitalise for the hosts, hacking the ball down the field and collecting to score completely against the run of play.

The back-and-forth nature of the game continued as centre Turner finished a well-worked try and Prendergast was once again accurate from the kicking tee.

Leo Cullen's men soon found themselves in the unfamiliar position of being rattled as Lions hit back with two quickfire tries from Louw and Horn just before the sides went in at the break.

A more determined Leinster side emerged for the second half and a sustained period of pressure in the Lions 22 resulted in a try for Milne, and Prendergast was accurate with the boot to reduce the deficit further.

Nohamba nudged his side ahead with a penalty and Leinster were once again on the ropes after receiving two yellow cards for Nick McCarthy and Chris Cosgrave for deliberate knock-ons, the second of which resulted in a penalty try for Lions.

Leinster rallied however, and replacement Rob Russell made an immediate impact with a try followed shortly after by a well-taken try from Cosgrave who stretched over and Prendergast added the extras to level the scores.

A dramatic finish followed, with Leinster applying sustained pressure. Lions conceded a penalty which Prendergast kicked with ease to give his side a memorable victory.

Lions: Q Horn; S Pienaar, M Rass, M Louw (capt), E van der Merwe; G Lombard, S Nohamba; R Rijnsburger, PJ Botha, A Ntlabakanye, W Alberts, R Schoeman, J Kriel, R Delport, F Horn.

Replacements: M Brandon, JP Smith, R Dreyer, D Landsberg, T Gordon, M van den Berg, R Jonker, A Coetzee.

Leinster: C Cosgrave; T O'Brien, L Turner, B Brownlee, D Kearney; S Prendergast, N McCarthy; M Milne, L Barron, V Abdaladze, B Deeny, J Jenkins; R Ruddock (capt), W Connors, M Deegan.

Replacements: T McElroy, E Byrne, T Clarkson, A Soroka, J Culhane, B Murphy, C Tector, R Russell.