The Dragons are an improving outfit who leave Dublin with credit in the bank, after making Leo Cullen’s men work hard for their victory, in front of a crowd of 18,397 who turned up to Lansdowne Road for the first game of Leinster’s temporary residence were treated to a sloppy opening half display, followed by a better second 40 minutes in which the bench had a big impact.
This team has a reputation for upholding high standards regardless of who is available, but there’s been a drop-off in the last couple of seasons and at times the poor quality of the home side’s play reached alarming levels. Better teams would have punished them.
There were defensive misreads, repeat penalty concessions for double-banking at the lineout maul and croc-rolls at the ruck; there were forward passes and aerial spills.
Cian Healy made his record 281st appearance for the province, a remarkable achievement that was worthy of celebration and the reality is that it’s all this game will be remembered for.
There were a few individuals to put their hand up, particularly former Ireland U-20s captain Gus McCarthy who looks like he could have a big season in Dan Sheehan’s absence. He goes to South Africa for the Emerging Ireland tour with a spring in his step.
Max Deegan backed up his words in midweek with a strong performance, while Jamie Osborne and Jack Conan had their moments, but across the board they won’t be happy wiht their level of performance.
The Dragons found holes in the Jacques Nienaber rush defence twice in the first five minutes, but Leinster’s scramble saved the inside men’s cover.
Lloyd Evans missed a handy chance to put the visitors in front from a penalty after 10 minutes when Ross Byrne strayed offside and it was Leinster who struck first eight minutes later after the Dragons lost Chris Coleman to a yellow card for a head on head clash with Thomas Clarkson.
Byrne went up the line, Gus McCarthy peeled away from a stagnant maul and made gains. Charlie Tector made a hard carry, before Byrne retrieved a loose pass off the deck and moved it left where Jimmy O’Brien fed Tector with Jack Conan on his outside and the No 8 forced his way over.
Byrne’s conversion was wide and Leinster looked like they might settle into the game from there, but instead the errors continued and when the Dragons got back to 15 men they were just two back after Evans nailed his second attempt.
Leinster did manage a second try before the half was out, punishing Dragons indiscipline by driving a strong maul towards the line. With penalty advantage, the forwards foraged before Byrne took matters into his own hands and darted over.
The last act of the half saw Evans reduce the gap to four points after Cian Healy was guilty of a croc-roll, but Leinster upped their intensity after the interval and within a few minutes Deegan was forcing his way over on the back of a strong maul and a big carry from McCarthy.
This time Byrne couldn’t miss the conversion, the bench were soon in to make an impact with Fintan Gunne injecting much-needed tempo from scrum-half as they built their best attack of the night with Deegan and Osborne prominent before the Dragons coughed up a penalty.
Leinster went to the corner and worked a front-peel move for Joe McCarthy to power through a couple of Welshmen to score, with Byrne converting from the corner,
Jordan Larmour added a fifth try as the Leinster fans began to belatedly enjoy their rhythm, Byrne once again missing the conversion.
Peak Leinster would have run in a few more tries from there and with Rabah Slimani causing havoc at the scrum they had their chances.
The Welsh side didn’t deserve a hammering though and Leinster weren’t really able to deliver one, adding one more try through Aitzol King from a lovely Harry Byrne pass before Byrne missed a fourth conversion that summed up the evening.
Scorers
Leinster: R Byrne try, 2 cons; J Conan, M Deegan, J McCarthy, J Larmour, A King try each;
Dragons: L Evans 2 pens;
Leinster: J Osborne; J Larmour (A King 70), L Turner, C Tector (H Byrne 63), J O’Brien; R Byrne, L McGrath (F Gunne 61); C Healy (M Milne 53), G McCarthy (L Barron 52), T Clarkson (R Slimani 52), B Deeny (J McCarthy 52), J Ryan, M Deegan, W Connors (J van der Flier 63), J Conan (capt).
Dragons: E Rosser; R Dyer (A Owen 68), H Wilson, S Hughes (A Owen 59), J Rosser; L Evans, D Blacker (R Williams 52); R Martinez (R Jones 51), B Coghlan, (O Burrows 59) C Coleman (L Yendle 28-32 HIA, 59); B Carter (capt), G Nott (M Screech 6), R Woodman, H Keddie, S Lewis-Hughes.
Ref: M Adamson (SRU)
