United Rugby Championship: Leinster 35-5 Sharks - hosts reach semi-finals
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Leinster full-back Hugo Keenan is tackled by Aphelele Fassi at the Aviva Stadium
United Rugby Championship - Leinster v Sharks |
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Leinster (21) 35 |
Tries: Doris, Milne, Larmour, Deegan, Gibson-Park Cons: H Byrne 4, R Byrne |
Sharks (5) 5 |
Try: Williams |
Leinster earned a home semi-final in the United Rugby Championship thanks to a 35-5 win over Sharks in Dublin.
Grant Williams scored an early Sharks try before Leinster hit back with converted tries from Caelan Doris, Michael Milne and Jordan Larmour.
The hosts led 21-5 at the break and added further seven-pointers from Max Deegan and replacement Jamison Gibson-Park.
Leinster will face either Glasgow Warriors or Munster next week.
Thomas du Toit won the Sharks' first scrum penalty, getting the decision over Milne, and scrum-half Williams followed up with a brilliant seventh-minute solo try.
The once-capped Springbok broke in between Tadhg Furlong and Ryan Baird before outpacing Dave Kearney for the right corner. Boeta Chamberlain's conversion went wide.
An impressive Kearney counter-attack put Leinster in position to respond, and Doris was fed from a maul to smash his way over past Mapimpi. The Sharks winger was sin-binned for an awkward head-led tackle.
Harry Byrne converted and also added the extras to Milne's 20th-minute try, in which the prop piled over with support from Deegan.
A Byrne cross-field kick played in Larmour for try number three, and the Irish hosts also stopped a big drive from the Sharks pack, which had Carlu Sadie on for the injured Du Toit.
A costly scrum free-kick, coupled with a late Chamberlain penalty miss, left the Sharks frustrated. Their scrum continued to be dominant on the restart, with Ox Nche to the fore.
However, a neat line of passes soon sent the lurking Deegan over from the left touchline, with replacement Jack Conan supplying the assist. Byrne's right boot made it 28-5.
Gibson-Park completed the scoring in the 74th minute, going over from a deft Kearney kick through. Fellow replacement Ross Byrne converted.
The Sharks, who miss out on Champions Cup rugby for next season, had a Rohan Janse van Rensburg try ruled out for James Venter connecting with Andrew Porter's head at a ruck. The flanker ended the game in the sin-bin.