Leinster bring true grit on slippy road

RUGBY/Magners League/Connacht 10 Leinster 16:  The away dressing-room echoed to the sound of Dublin In The Rare Oul Times, which showed both how much this win meant to Leinster and how hard they had to work for it. It was a rare oul battle too, like a step back in time to the interpro days in the Wild West, when traditionally Leinster were sometimes seen as a soft touch.

For all the battering they've taken over their pool exit in the Heineken European Cup, Leinster have shown true grit on the road, emerging unbeaten from their third away derby - on another night you wouldn't have put the cat out in - and thus extending their run of just one defeat in 15 Magners League matches against fellow Irish provinces. With a little help from Ulster, they have now pulled 10 points clear.

"It's a good win," said coach Michael Cheika, well satisfied with a good night's work. "We showed maximum courage even though we shouldn't have been hanging on at the end. They (Connacht) don't get a lot of kudos but they're a tough team; I've seen the change since I first came here.

"People were surprised to hear us singing in the dressing-room but that's because of the respect we have for them."

And it was the old stagers, the outstanding Ollie le Roux, Malcolm O'Kelly and Keith Gleeson, as much as the newer kids on the block, who rolled up their sleeves and got down and dirty, helped as they were by a telling contribution off the bench from Shane Horgan.

Having limited Connacht to a mere 10-3 lead at the break, Leinster looked pretty much home and hosed when taking the lead with half an hour to go and the elements behind them, only for the Connacht pack to remorselessly inch their way to the Leinster line in keeping the 4,000 attendance absorbed until the last whistle.

"I thought we had a very good chance," lamented Michael Bradley of another one that got away. "It was a magnificent effort in the last 20 minutes having gone six points down - soft enough really, a misunderstanding in defence. Leinster did very well in the first half but based on the effort over 80 minutes a lot of people will be coming back to support us."

Connacht had first use of the Atlantic storm swirling from the river at the Bohermore end into the College Road end; not the circumstances to be a winger, let alone a winger making his debut for the visiting side. A couple of minutes in, the pacy Seapoint product Felix Jones came infield to safely take the game's first towering up and under.

Andy Dunne hit the post and missed a second penalty either side of the impressive Johnny Muldoon delighting the 2,000 compressed into the relative shelter of the main stand by putting Le Roux into touch with a monster hit.

At the third attempt Dunne opened the scoring when Stan Wright was offside. But Gavin Duffy seemed merely to prod the ball from inside his own 10-metre line only to see it roll dead.

From the resultant field position, the Leinster pack rumbled infield, O'Kelly making big yards as Michael Swift came in from the side. As predicted by the watching Mike Brewer, "what happens if . . .", Contepomi's penalty went between the posts only to be blown back, boomerang effect, into play. After some confusion George Clancy, correctly, awarded the three points.

Connacht's half-time buffer came about with surprising ease. Off a scrum, Conor O'Loughlin fed Dunne, who ran hard at the Leinster line and deftly disguised his offload inside for Keith Matthews to score under the posts.

Leinster erased the lead within 10 minutes. An excellent carry by Gleeson one-off at the ruck and a quick tap by Chris Whitaker brought the three-pointer within easier ranger for Contepomi.

Immediately the same chink appeared in the Connacht defence as Dunne missed Wright for another big carry and off the recycle the ball was moved along the line for Chris Warner to find Horgan. He was a long way out, but with strength, acceleration and a hand-off swatted away Aidan Wynne and Matt Mostyn to score another surprisingly soft try.

Contepomi's conversion was even better, and having twice been penalised at scrums Connacht would have been relieved Leinster opted for another three-pointer to make it 16-10.

But they defied the increasing wind and rain as Ronan Loughney and Ray Ofisa gave their close-in rumbles some oomph and Conor McPhillips injected pace and direction. Three times, as chants of Connacht reverberated, they put together huge drives through umpteen recycles forcing a five-metre scrum and the binning of Cian Healy. But Leinster stood firm, le Roux and O'Kelly driving McPhillips off the ball for Contepomi to find a final, relieving touch.

Scoring sequence: 12 mins: Dunne pen 3-0; 20: Contepomi pen 3-3; 38: Matthews try, Dunne con 10-3 (half-time 10-3); 48: Contepomi pen 10-6; 50: Horgan try, Contepomi con 10-13; 64: Contepomi pen 10-16.

CONNACHT: G Duffy; A Wynne, M Mostyn, M Deane, K Matthews; A Dunne, C O'Loughlin; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris; M Swift, A Farley (capt); J Muldoon, J O'Connor, C Rigney. Replacements: R Ofisa for Rigney (51 mins), C McPhillips for O'Loughlin (60 mins), R Loughney for Morris, T Donnelly for Dunne (both 69 mins). Not used: J Merrigan, D Gannon, T Donnelly, L Bibo.

LEINSTER: L Fitzgerald; F Jones, M Berne, C Warner, G Brown; F Contepomi, C Whitaker (capt); O le Roux, B Blaney, S Wright; T Hogan, M O'Kelly; S Jennings, K Gleeson, S Keogh. Replacements: S Horgan for Jones (half-time); C Healy for le Roux (65 mins), C Jowitt for Hogan (72 mins), le Roux for Healy (82 mins). Not used: S Knoop, K McLaughlin, C Keane, E O'Malley. Sinbinned: Healy (81 mins).

Referee:G Clancy (IRFU).