Leinster's class tells in the end

Leinster 30 Connacht 21: Leinster were made to fight tooth and nail against Connacht at Donnybrook this evening but secured the points to move clear of Ulster at the top of the Celtic League.

Three tries and a 100 per cent kicking return from stand-in captain Felipe Contepomi were enough for Michael Cheika's men to edge this provincial duel, after they had gone 16-3 behind.

Three Paul Warwick penalties and hooker Adrian Flavin's maul-over try shot Connacht into a deserved 13-point lead but Leinster's greater strike power, which saw them score 17 points without reply in the second half, saw them take the spoils and move four points clear of Ulster in the standings.

Helped by the return of Girvan Dempsey, Gordon D'Arcy, Shane Horgan, Denis Hickie and Trevor Hogan from Six Nations duty, Leinster looked well placed to make a winning return to league action.

But Connacht, whose only win in Dublin since 1985 was at this very venue in 2002, paid little respect to the league leaders in a frantic first quarter. The visitors were 13 points to the good after only 14 minutes' play.

Warwick landed his first two penalties and sandwiched in between was a peach of a try in the left corner from Flavin who touched down after a superb rolling maul.

Contepomi and Warwick then swapped penalties, the latter's coming just after Leinster had their Cook Islands prop Stan Wright sin-binned for some over-zealous rucking.

Just when they needed it, Leinster struck for their opening try when former Connacht favourite Bernard Jackman darted over after some neat interplay between Contepomi, Hickie and Gleeson.

Contepomi converted the try but Connacht still took a 21-10 lead into the break as they leaked a further try to Warwick before their Argentinian number 10 landed a late penalty.

Warwick showed excellent leg strength to shrug off two tacklers and scramble in behind the posts in the 35th-minute ahead of Jamie Heaslip.

Connacht flanker Matt Lacey saw yellow in injury-time and Leinster, despite some excellent defence from the westerners, took over in the second half.

The 14 men of Connacht managed to keep Leinster out before Lacey's return, but Chris Whitaker and Contempomi combined to put Gleeson tearing over in the 53rd-minute for a well-worked try.

Taking a leaf out of Ronan O'Gara's book, Contepomi then delivered a cross-field kick out to the right for Horgan to gather, above two defenders, and swoop for Leinster's third try.

Contepomi's conversion nosed the hosts into a 27-21 lead and his 67th-minute penalty took what would have been a deserved bonus point away from Connacht.

Heaslip was also robbed of an injury-time try when referee Peter Fitzgibbon ruled the effort out for a forward pass, but Leinster already had their sixth straight win over Connacht sewn up.