Leinster's record run ended
Not even the return of legendary Irish midfielder Brian O’Driscoll could prevent Leinster’s 20-match unbeaten run from coming to an end.
Richard Hibbard scored a dramatic late try as Ospreys claimed a nailbiting 23-22 Pro12 win and in the process ended the longest unbeaten record in European rugby.
The home side led 19-6 early in the second half, but George Stowers’ try gave the Ospreys hope before the Welsh club produced a big finish.
Hibbard’s 77th-minute try cut Leinster’s lead to a point before Dan Biggar kicked a superb conversion.
* Newport Gwent Dragons had their South African import Tonderai Chavhanga to thank for a 29-15 victory over Edinburgh, as the flyer scored two first-half tries in their Pro12 clash.
The South African, who is set to sign a contract extension beyond this season at Rodney Parade, burst out of the traps with two tries in the opening 16 minutes to all but end the contest at Murrayfield.
* In the final Friday match Peter Murchie’s late try set up a grandstand finish as play-off chasing Glasgow tried in vain to secure a valuable bonus-point victory over struggling Aironi in their 29-6 triumph.
All Friday’s scores and scorers!
Leinster 22-23 Ospreys:
Richard Hibbard bulldozed over for a late try to help Ospreys end Leinster’s 20-game winning streak and ruin Brian O’Driscoll’s Pro12 return with victory at the RDS.
Ian Madigan’s opportunist try and 11 points from the boot of centre Fergus McFadden put Leinster 16-6 up at the break and seemingly on course for a routine victory.
But George Stowers finished off a well-worked Ospreys move early in the second half and after holding out with 14 men following Justin Tipuric’s yellow card, Hibbard powered through a series of tackles for a try and Dan Biggar’s conversion bounced through off the post for a dramatic win.
O’Driscoll completed 58 minutes on his return from neck and shoulder surgery following Ireland’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat to Wales in October but it was scant consolation for Leinster who suffered their first defeat since September as the Ospreys climbed to second.
Leinster were ahead after only a minute when Tipuric infringed at the breakdown and centre McFadden kicked the three points.
Dan Biggar responded with a penalty of his own on nine minutes and while McFadden missed the chance to edge Leinster back in front on the quarter hour, he made amends soon after.
With the wind at his back the 25-year-old kicked the Pro12 leaders ahead on 21 minutes before landing a huge penalty five minutes later.
Despite trailing on the scoreboard the Ospreys restricted Leinster’s try-scoring opportunities until Richardt Strauss’ overthrown lineout bounced up perfectly for fly-half Madigan who raced clear of Hanno Dirksen to score.
McFadden duly converted to put Leinster 13 points clear before Biggar responded with a penalty four minutes before the break to keep the Ospreys in the contest.
Leinster almost increased their advantage straight after the break when Luke Fitzgerald cut through the Ospreys defence but Tipuric recovered in time to tackle the winger before he could reach the line.
McFadden then slotted his fourth penalty of the game before Ospreys worked the ball through nine phases only to give away a penalty deep in Leinster territory.
A Biggar penalty again reduced the deficit and the Ospreys were soon right back in the contest when Dirksen and Ashley Beck combined to release George Stowers for his first Pro12 try.
After Biggar added the extras Leinster responded by replacing Brad Thorn on his first start with Damian Browne and the fresh legs almost helped push the hosts over the whitewash – only for the Ospreys defence to hold them up over the line.
Leinster regrouped and thought they’d crossed for their second try of the night when Heinke van der Merwe ploughed over the line but centre Beck did superbly to lodge his shoulder between the ball and the turf.
O’Driscoll made way for Eoin O’Malley just before the hour mark while Ospreys sent on Grand Slam-winning Wales prop Adam Jones with the game firmly in the balance.
After Leinster prop Jamie Hagan was stretchered off injured, McFadden slotted a further penalty to open up a six-point gap.
Tipuric was then sin-binned for a dangerous tackle but kicking into the wind McFadden’s effort from distance fell short.
Leinster failed to capitalise on the man advantage and when flanker Tipuric returned Ospreys snatched the victory as Hibbard bundled over the line and Biggar’s kicked bounced through off the post to win it.
The scorers:
For Leinster:
Try: Madigan
Con: McFadden
Pens: McFadden 5
For Ospreys:
Tries: Stowers, Hibbard
Con: Biggar 2
Pens: Biggar 3
Yellow card: Justin Tipuric (Ospreys, 62)
Teams:
Leinster: 15 Isa Nacewa, 14 David Kearney, 13 Brian O’Driscoll, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Ian Madigan, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Leo Auva’a, 7 Dominic Ryan, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 5 Brad Thorn, 4 Leo Cullen (captain), 3 Nathan White, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Jamie Hagan, 19 Damian Browne, 20 Kevin McLaughlin, 21 John Cooney, 22 Eoin O’Malley, 23 Fionn Carr.
Ospreys: 15 Richard Fussell, 14 Hanno Dirksen, 13 Andrew Bishop, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Eli Walker, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Kahn Fotuali’i, 8 George Stowers, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Tom Smith, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (captain), 4 Ryan Jones, 3 Aaron Jarvis, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Adam Jones, 19 Ian Evans, 20 James King, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Matthew Morgan, 23 Tom Isaacs.
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Simon McDowell (Ireland), Ollie Hodges (Ireland)
TMO: Alan Rogan (Ireland)
Edinburgh 15-29 Dragons:
Jet-heeled winger Tonderai Chavhanga helped Newport Gwent Dragons to a 29-15 victory over Edinburgh with two first-half tries in their Pro12 clash.
The South African, who is set to sign a contract extension beyond this season at Rodney Parade, burst out of the traps with two tries in the opening 16 minutes to all but end the contest at Murrayfield.
Darren Edwards’ side, who beat their Scottish opponents in the corresponding Pro12 fixture last month 21-10, made it a satisfying double with some expert kicking from fly-half Steffan Jones – who added 13 points in total.
With minds perhaps on the upcoming Heineken Cup quarter-final against Toulouse on Easter Saturday, the best Edinburgh could offer was five penalties from the boot of Harry Leonard – who could not stop the Gunners slipping to their seventh consecutive Pro12 loss.
Dragons, who have now won four of their last game league games, made a scrappy start and allowed Leonard to give Edinburgh an early lead when he slotted over a clean penalty after an offside on the 22.
But the Dragons responded well, in particular Chavhanga who latched on to a well-placed Jones kick to go over in the corner on nine minutes. Jones converted the extras.
More indiscipline from the Dragons resulted in another Leonard penalty to narrow the deficit to one point before Jones responded with his own long-range kick.
If Chavhanga’s first try was a warning, the Scottish side didn’t take note as the South African helped himself to his second try on 16 minutes after another clever kick – this time from centre Ashley Smith – with Jones adding another two points from the conversion.
Leonard was continuing to keep the Gunners in touch, with two further penalties sandwiched in between Dragons flanker Darren Waters’ yellow card.
Michael Bradley’s side failed to take advantage however, and indeed went further behind when Jones added a further two penalties before half time for a 23-12 lead.
Edinburgh’s enterprise in the opening stages of the second period was rewarded, inevitably, by the boot of Leonard who grabbed another penalty on 52 minutes but they failed to break the Welsh region’s defensive line.
And they were made to pay when replacement Lewis Robling kicked a penalty with 13 minutes remaining before Edinburgh were again penalised, this time for coming over the top of the ruck, which the fly-half duly slotted home for a 14-point advantage.
Phil Price was then sinbinned for Dragons but it made little difference, as they did the double over their Scottish hosts.
The scorers:
For Edinburgh:
Pens: Leonard 5
For the Dragons:
Tries: Chavhanga 2
Cons: Jones 2
Pens: Jones 3, Robling 2
Yellow card: Darren Waters (Newport Gwent Dragons, 23), Phil Price (Newport Gwent Dragons, 75)
Teams:
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Tom Brown, 13 Dougie Fife, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Harry Leonard, 9 Chris Leck, 8 Netani Talei, 7 Stuart McInally, 6 Roddy Grant (captain), 5 Sean Cox, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Jack Gilding, 2 Andrew Kelly, 1 Kyle Traynor.
Replacements: 16 Alun Walker, 17 Lewis Niven, 18 Ulises Gamboa, 19 Robert McAlpine, 20 Alan MacDonald, 21 Alex Black, 22 Gregor Hunter, 23 Sep Visser.
Dragons: 15 Will Harries, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Adam Hughes, 12 Ashley Smith, 11 Aled Brew, 10 Steffan Jones, 9 Joe Bedford, 8 Tom Brown, 7 Darren Waters, 6 Jevon Groves, 5 Rob Sidoli, 4 Luke Charteris (captain), 3 Dan Way, 2 Sam Parry, 1 Nathan Williams.
Replacements: 16 Steve Jones, 17 Phil Price, 18 Nathan Buck, 19 Hywel Stoddart, 20 Lewis Evans, 21 Wayne Evans, 22 Lewis Robling, 23 Martyn Thomas.
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland), Iain Bruce (Scotland)
Warriors 29-6 Aironi:
Peter Murchie’s late try set up a grandstand finish as play-off chasing Glasgow tried in vain to secure a valuable bonus-point victory over struggling Aironi in their 29-6 Pro12 triumph.
Warriors coach Sean Lineen, who will be leaving Firhill at the end of the season to become Scottish Rugby Union’s head of player acquisition, watched on in a frustrating first half that brought just one try from the impressive Tommy Seymour.
Warriors, who are now unbeaten in five Pro12 games, added further tries after the interval through Ryan Grant and Murchie, but left it too late to seal what would have been a valuable five points, particularly given Ospreys’ surprise 23-22 win over league leaders Leinster.
Aironi, who remain rooted to the foot of the Pro12 table, offered little in terms of attacking threat and two first-half penalties from Luciano Orquera was all they could muster.
It was a bright start by the Warriors, and it took just three minutes for Duncan Weir to open the scoring with a nicely-taken penalty from just outside the 22.
Grant almost forced his way over in a relentless spell of pressure from the hosts that resulted in another penalty – slotted home by Weir – for a 6-0 lead.
The resolute Aironi defence continued to frustrate Lineen’s side on their own line – restricting Weir to another penalty despite total territorial dominance throughout the opening 25 minutes.
In one of their first forays into the Warriors half the Italians grabbed three points of their own through the boot of Orquera before the Italian fly-half again sailed an effort between the posts on the half hour mark.
With tension building at Firhill a superb Seymour break through the Aironi line five minutes before the interval gave the Scottish side their opening try – under the posts – which Weir converted for a 16-6 half-time advantage.
Four minutes after the restart Weir was again on the scoresheet with a 30-metre penalty but that elusive second try evaded them until Grant burrowed his way over on the hour mark after a powerful maul.
The prop was adjudged to have crossed the whitewash by the TMO but Weir failed to add the extras with his first wayward kick of the evening.
Chris Fusaro was then denied his first try of the season with 15 minutes remaining as Lineen’s side hunted down the bonus point.
And with eight minutes remaining it was within touching distance after a lightning attack from the breakdown by Samoan winger David Lemi opened up space on the left for Murchie to easily cross.
Scott Wight’s missed conversion mattered little before Lemi and Troy Nathan both came close as the Warriors desperately tried to steal a valuable fourth try but, just as they did in the early stages of the first half, Aironi held firm.
The scorers:
For the Warriors:
Tries: Seymour, Murchie, Grant
Con: Weir
Pens: Weir 4
For Aironi:
Pens: Orquera 2
Yellow card: Matias Aguero (Aironi, 67)
Teams:
Glasgow: 15 Peter Murchie, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Federico Aramburu, 11 David Lemi, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Calum Forrester, 5 Tom Ryder, 4 Nick Campbell, 3 Mike Cusack, 2 Dougie Hall (captain), 1 Ryan Grant.
Replacements: 16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Moray Low, 19 Rob Verbakel, 20 Johnnie Beattie, 21 Murray McConnell, 22 Scott Wight, 23 Troy Nathan.
Aironi: 15 Tito Tebaldi, 14 Giulio Toniolatti, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Matteo Pratichetti, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Tyson Keats, 8 Filippo Ferrarini, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Nicola Cattina, 5 Carlo Del Fava (captain), 4 George Biagi, 3 Lorenzo Romano, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Alberto De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Antonio Denti, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Salvatore Perugini, 19 Joshua Furno, 20 Simone Favaro, 21 Giorgio Bronzini, 22 Naas Olivier, 23 Alberto Benettin.
Referee: Dudley Phillips (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Andrew Macpherson (Scotland), Bib Nevins (Scotland)
TMO: Jim Yuille (Scotland)
