Celtic League/ Gwent 35; Leinster 14; Springbok star Bob Skinstad marked his Welsh debut with a stunning try as Gwent Dragons mauled an injury-ravaged Leinster side with a five-try blitz at Rodney Parade last night.
Visiting coach Gary Ella had enough problems losing 10 players to Eddie O'Sullivan's national squad, and several injuries to key players meant his men were on a hiding to nothing against Gwent, who lost only two players to Wales duty and have suffered only one defeat at home all season.
Backrower Skinstad came off the bench in the 50th minute and used his power and pace to score the clincher in the 73rd minute after fellow South Africans Percy Montgomery and Shawn Van Rensburg had already crossed the Leinster line.
Despite a couple of floodlights refusing to work, the match started on time and Gwent took advantage of the gale at their backs to apply the early pressure.
In-form backrower Jason Forster burrowed his way over the line in the opening minutes, but Scottish referee Greg Davies ruled he had lost control as he grounded the ball. The relief of the visiting fans didn't last long, though, as centre Montgomery stood up David Quinlan from the ensuing scrum to score near the corner and rubbed salt into the wound with the conversion.
Gwent full back Sione Tuipulotu powered his way over near the corner in the 17th minute. Montgomery curled in the conversion to double the margin to 14-0.
Leinster outhalf Brian O'Meara bagged a 35-metre penalty goal to keep his side in touch as Tuipulotu spilled two scoring passes, but Van Rensburg extended his side's lead as the home scrum muscled their way over the line.
O'Meara slotted another penalty as the rain started pouring down, and added a third in the final play of the half to narrow the margin to 21-9 as Van Rensburg was shown a yellow card for a professional foul.
Leinster went close to opening the second-half scoring, but tighthead prop Peter Coyle - nursing a shoulder injury - dropped the crucial pass.
The missed opportunity wasn't helped by the sin-binning of visiting captain Shane Jennings, who trudged off as Springbok star Bob Skinstad ran on to the cheers of the Rodney Parade crowd.
The 14-man Leinster side clawed their way back into Dragons territory, but a stunning break from Tuipulotu went through several pairs of hands and ended 70 metres upfield with prop Adam Black barging over for the bonus-point try. Montgomery banged over his fourth conversion to give the home side a daunting 19-point lead with 25 minutes left on the clock.
Leinster ground their way back, with centre Christian Warner scoring to bring his side to within two converted tries of a draw. But Montgomery stole the ball during a Leinster attack and Gwent spun it wide. Skinstad had a man outside him but threw the dummy and powered over the line to score the home side's second 70-metre try of the night.
Davies found time to sin-bin Tuipulotu in the 84th minute, but it was no help to Leinster as they crashed to a heavy defeat.
GWENT: S Tuipulotu; N Brew, P Montgomery, A Marinos (capt), B Breeze; C Warlow, G Baber; A Black, S Jones, C Anthony, I Gough, P Sidoli, J Ringer, J Forster, S Van Rensburg. Replacements: S Winn for Marinos (65 mins); G Arasa for Warlow (77 mins); R Snow for Anthony (48 mins); L Charteris for Ringer (74 mins); B Skinstad for Van Rensburg (65 mins). Sin-binned: S Van Rensburg, S Tuipulotu. Tries: P Montgomery, S Tuipulotu, S Van Rensburg, A Black, B Skinstad; Cons: P Montgomery 5.
LEINSTER: J Norton; J McWeeney, C Warner, D Quinlan, B Burke; B O'Meara, B O'Riordan; J Moran, G Hickie, P Coyle, A Kearney, B Gissing, S Crawford, S Jennings (capt), C Potts. Replacements: S Brophy for Moran (31 mins); D Blaney for Hickie (62 mins); Sin-binned: S Jennings (Leinster). Try: C Warner; Pens: B O'Meara 3.
Referee: G Davies (Scotland).
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