Berne boots Leinster home in opener

Plymouth Albion 13 Leinster 16: A late penalty from Shaun Berne helped Leinster seal a gritty victory over Plymouth Albion in the opening round of the British & Irish Cup in Brickfields Recreation Grounds, Plymouth on Saturday evening.

It gave Berne a personal haul of 11 points, with a first-half Michael Keating try helping the province seal a narrow but deserved win against the Championship side in front of a vocal 1,250 crowd.

Leinster’s try came after Ronan McCormack continued a move which Paul O'Donohoe started. He found Berne who skipped an accurate pass to the rushing Keating who raced into the corner on the stroke of half-time.

A cynical body check on Berne by Tonga centre Sione Tuipulotu in the 75th minute led to the match-winning penalty which the former Australia 'A' man slotted home to seal the win for the visitors.

Plymouth Albion: M Lee; B Mercer, K Fisilau, S Tu'ipulotu, L Gibson; A Davies, R Cushion; M Rice, J Clark, R Hopkins, J Waterhouse, T Skelding, W Sprangle, R Watts-Jones, K Marriott

Replacements: M Lewis for Waterhouse (75), G Kingdom for Lee (78), G Dawe for Clark 80, G Porter for Hopkins (80)

Leinster: N Morris; M Keating, B Macken, Shaun Berne, D Kearney; I McKinley, P O'Donohoe; R McCormack, J Fogarty, J McGrath, T Hogan, C Ruddock, R Ruddock, D Ryan, Stephen Keogh.

Replacements: R Strauss for Fogarthy (44), Simon Keaogh for O’Donoghue (62), P Ryan for R Ruddock (62), E O’Malley for Macken (71), A Conway for Kearney (75), S Maguire for McGrath 80).

Referee: A McMenemy (Scotland)