Sporadic brilliance does it for Leinster

Celtic League/ Leinster 31 Border Reivers 0:This victory was far from facile; a couple of late tries - the first of which guaranteed the all-important bonus point - managed to put a gloss finish on a matt performance.

It wasn't as if Leinster didn't offer their usual snatches of scintillating fare, but apart from those cameos their game was pockmarked by sloppiness.

Border Reivers were game, defensively honest and obdurate, but that was the extent of their ambition.

There were a few tentative forays around the fringes of ruck and maul and the straight running of captain and centre Calum MacRae, but they inevitably led to boot being put to ball. Their punting was largely indiscriminate and misdirected, giving the home side plenty of scope to counterattack.

Leinster embraced this invitation with gusto and fashioned enough line breaks to win five matches, but when precision and composure were required to embellish the approach play, players were guilty of undermining each other with wild passing and poor option-taking.

It was a pity because it should really have been a more comfortable evening for the team and their supporters, an opportunity to indulge in a little nostalgia and celebrate the impending retirement not only of Leinster's most capped player, Reggie Corrigan, but also of Will Green and Guy Easterby.

Instead it proved more an exercise in anxious clock-watching until Brian Blaney's 75th-minute try, his side's fourth, wrested the bonus point.

The din that accompanied the score was the communal venting of pent-up anxiety.

Christian Warner's fine solo effort in the 79th minute fully restored the carnival air that had been prevalent at kick-off time.

Corrigan was given a standing ovation when he led the team on to the pitch - he received the same accolade when replaced halfway through the second half - and there was a great moment too for Green as his three-year-old son, Arthur, was a mascot.

Buoyed by the victory, Corrigan tried to capture his feelings, the ear-to-ear grin offering the first clue: "It was fantastic (the reception) and something that I won't forget but then I wouldn't expect anything else from the Donnybrook crowd.

"It's been an emotional week thinking about this game so it's nice to get the right result. We'll now look ahead to Cardiff."

But before that, as he confirmed, they would raise a glass to the passing of Donnybrook in its present incarnation.

Leinster coach Michael Cheika opted for the glass-half-full view, not that he ignored the errors.

"It's been a tough competition," he said. "The guys have given everything and now we just have to make sure that we are ready for next weekend. We got the five points and played some good football. We did make some mistakes and tended to play in bits and spurts. I was pleased with the points and now we can regroup for Friday night.

"After we went into a 14-nil lead we tried to play one-touch, trying to score off all phases. We have worked hard on our defence recently in training because we are going to need that in Cardiff.

"We targeted a shut-out and did that. I'm happy we're still one of the two teams involved (in the title chase)."

Once again Leinster's effectiveness was an amalgam of individual contributions, notably from Gordon D'Arcy, Bernard Jackman, Trevor Hogan, Keith Gleeson and Jamie Heaslip; when these players were on the ball, their team shifted through the gears. Rob Kearney and Felipe Contepomi were also prominent, the latter adorning his evening with a trademark try as he muscled his way over for the opening score on 10 minutes.

Contepomi converted, as he would again four minutes later when D'Arcy wriggled through heavy traffic with remarkable ease, accelerating from the wreckage to score under the posts.

At 14-0, Leinster should have cantered home but spurned one opportunity after another.

It was fitting that their third try should come from Heaslip, outstanding again in every facet of the game. Shane Horgan made the hard yards, D'Arcy again slalomed through tacklers and Heaslip was on hand to dot down.

Benches emptied as players tired but one replacement, the hugely promising Cian Healy, made a definitive impact, swatting aside a couple of tacklers before the move culminated in Blaney showing great strength to crash over in the corner.

Warner crossed for Leinster's fifth try, and D'Arcy applied for the role of back-up place-kicker by posting the conversion as the Leinster faithful decamped to the marquee on the back pitch.

By virtue of the defeats suffered by Cardiff and the Ospreys over the weekend, Leinster have been restored to the box seat.

Victory over Cardiff in the Arms Park next Friday night and the Celtic League title will almost certainly stay in Ireland for a second successive year. It's an endgame they have craved all season and one that will define this team.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 10 mins: Contepomi try, con 7-0; 14: D'Arcy try, Contepomi con 14-0 (half-time 14-0); 51: Heaslip try 19-0; 75: Blaney try 24-0; 79: Warner try, D'Arcy con 31-0.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; R Kearney, G D'Arcy, S Horgan, D Hickie; F Contepomi, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Jackman, W Green; T Hogan, M O'Kelly; S Keogh, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: C Whitaker for Easterby, C Jowitt for Keogh (both 55 mins); B Blaney for Jackman, C Healy for Corrigan, O Finegan for O'Kelly (all 63 mins); L Fitzgerald for Kearney (66 mins); C Warner for Horgan (76 mins).

BORDER REIVERS: S Moffat; D Flockhart, G Law, C McRae (capt), N de Luca; S Jones, R Chrystie; G Kerr, S Scott, B Douglas; S Grimes, O Palepoi; S Gray, A Miller, K Brown. Replacements: J Dalziel for Brown (30-36 mins); B Rennie for Law (53 mins); S Crombie for Scott (55 mins); C Hamilton for Grimes (61 mins); E Kalman for Kerr, B McKerchar for Chrystie (both 63 mins); Dalziel for Gray, G Townsend for Jones (both 66 mins).

Referee: H Watkins(Wales).