BRITISH AND IRISH CUP/Plymouth Albion 13 Leinster 16:A SHAUN BERNE penalty five minutes from time secured a young Leinster side victory over Plymouth Albion in their opening British and Irish Cup fixture.
The match, played on a heavy pitch, looked to be heading for a draw until Plymouth’s Tongan centre Keni Fisilau was deemed to have committed an illegal tackle on Australian centre Berne.
The 2,000-plus home support were outranged by the decision, but the experienced Berne kept his cool to calmly slot over the simple kick.
Plymouth, who play in English rugby’s professional second tier, threw everything at Leinster in the dying minutes but the visitors held on, much to the delight of coach Colin McEntee.
“It was a very hard physical battle, but one we are happy to have come through,” said McEntee.
“It was a game that could have gone either way and if it had finished a draw I don’t think either side would have complained. But we’re just happy we got the bounce this week.” McEntee praised Berne, who kicked 11 points and made a try for young winger Michael Keating.
“He was the granddad of the back line,” said McEntee. “But it was great having that experience out there. In tight games it is important to have a cool head to make good tactical decisions.” Leinster, who also gave run outs to Trevor Hogan, Ronan McCormack and Stephen Keogh, had found themselves 10-3 down after 25 minutes.
After Berne had kicked an early three-pointer, Plymouth, with former Old Belvedere scrum-half Ruairi Cushion in their side, hit back with an Alex Davies penalty and a converted try by winger Liam Gibson, who out-jumped Dave Kearney to win a cross-field kick.
But Berne kicked another penalty on 34 minutes before he fed Keating to go over on the left in first half injury-time. Berne also added the touchline conversion to put Leinster 13-10 up at the break.
Plymouth fly-half Davies slotted over a penalty on 48 minutes to level the scores and that was how it stayed until Berne’s winning kick on 75 minutes.
PLYMOUTH: M Lee (G Kingdom 78); B Mercer, K Fisilau, S Tu’ipulotu, L Gibson; A Davies, R Cushion; M Rice, J Clark (G Dawe 80), R Hopkins (G Porter 80), J Waterhouse (M Lewis 77), T Skelding, W Sprangle, R Watts-Jones, K Marriott (capt). Subs not used: K Hallett, M Hopper, D Clayton.
LEINSTER: N Morris; M Keating, B Macken (E O’Malley 71), S Berne, D Kearney (A Conway 71); I McKinley, P O’Donohue (Simon Keogh 63); R McCormack, J Fogarty (R Strauss 44), J McGrath (S Maguire 80), T Hogan, C Ruddock (P Ryan 63), R Ruddock, D Ryan, Stephen Keogh. Subs not used: M Flanagan.
Referee: A McMenemy (Scotland)
Attendance: 2,208
