Leinster hold off Ulster, Venter the hero for Edinburgh

FRIDAY WRAP: Leinster held off a stirring Ulster fightback to climb to third place in the United Rugby Championship courtesy of a thrilling 29-21 bonus-point win in Belfast.

Leo Cullen’s side were cruising to victory at Affidea Stadium after tries from James Culhane and Jimmy O’Brien, plus a penalty and conversion from Sam Prendergast, helped them into a 15-0 half-time lead.

The hosts, who lost prop Angus Bell and centre James Hume to early injuries, fell further behind when Robbie Henshaw powered over in the 46th minute.

Ulster’s replacement lock Harry Sheridan was then sin-binned due to his side conceding a string of penalties before Leinster flyhalf Prendergast converted his own score, having darted over in the 51st minute to secure the bonus point and put the dominant visitors 29-0 in front.

Bryn Ward crossed to give Ulster hope before a quick-fire double from his brother Zac Ward and Nathan Doak’s three successful conversions cut Leinster’s lead to just eight points.

Leinster’s Max Deegan had a yellow card for tackling Werner Kok in the air upgraded to a 20-minute red card amid the major momentum swing but the away side clung on to leapfrog their opponents in the table.

Over in Scotland Boan Venter’s late try snatched Edinburgh a 31-30 victory over Zebre as the pendulum swung one way and then another at the Hive Stadium in the United Rugby Championship.

Edinburgh capitalised from a line-out to open the scoring through Connor Boyle but Zebre got themselves on level terms five minutes later when Alessandro Fusco darted over following a succession of penalties.

Zebre got their noses in front when Simone Geis went over in the corner but their lead was short lived, Malelili Satala passed over to Hector Patterson on debut who made it 14-12 to Edinburgh.

The hosts extended their advantage to seven points when Ewan Ashman powered through three defenders to score but Zebre cut that deficit to four on the stroke of the break through a Giovanni Montemauri penalty.

Zebre retook the lead five minutes into the second half after Jacopo Trulla received an offload and ran over but again they were not in the lead for long – Edinburgh drove the maul and Ashman was there to finish things off for his second of the night.

Zebre made it a one-point game when Montemauri slotted another penalty and then Matteo Nocera’s try put Zebre in position for a third win of the competition until Venter’s late effort gave Edinburgh the chance for the win and Cammy Scott’s conversion snatched the points.

See below for Friday’s scores and scorers!

Ulster 21-29 Leinster

The scorers:

For Ulster:
Tries: B Ward, Z Ward 2
Cons: Doak 3

For Leinster:
Tries: Culhane, J O’Brien, Henshaw, Prendergast
Cons: Prendergast 3
Pen: Prendergast

Teams:

Ulster: 15 Jacob Stockdale, 14 Werner Kok, 13 James Hume, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Zac Ward, 10 Jack Murphy, 9 Nathan Doak, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Sean Reffell, 6 David McCann, 5 Cormac Izuchukwu, 4 Iain Henderson (captain), 3 Tom O’Toole, 2 Tom Stewart, 1 Angus Bell.
Replacements: 16 James McCormick, 17 Sam Crean, 18 Scott Wilson, 19 Harry Sheridan, 20 Bryn Ward, 21 Conor McKee, 22 Jake Flannery, 23 Jude Postlethwaite.

Leinster: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Joshua Kenny, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Jimmy O’Brien, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 James Culhane, 7 Scott Penny, 6 Alex Soroka, 5 James Ryan (captain), 4 Brian Deeny, 3 Thomas Clarkson, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Jerry Cahir.
Replacements: 16 Gus McCarthy, 17 Ed Byrne, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Conor O’Tighearnaigh, 20 Max Deegan, 21 Will Connors, 22 Fintan Gunne, 23 Ciarán Frawley.

Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Andrew Cole (Ireland), Tomás O’Sullivan (Ireland)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)

Edinburgh 31-30 Zebre

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Tries: Boyle, Patterson, Ashman 2, Venter
Cons: Thompson 2, Scott

For Zebre:
Tries: Fusco, Gesi, Trulla, Nocera
Cons: Montemauri 3
Pens: Montemauri 2

Teams:

Edinburgh: 15 Piers O’Conor, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Mosese Tuipulotu, 12 Findlay Thomson, 11 Malelili Satala, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Hector Patterson, 8 Connor Boyle, 7 Freddy Douglas, 6 Liam McConnell, 5 Grant Gilchrist (captain), 4 Marshall Sykes, 3 Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Richardson, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Glen Young, 20 Tom Currie, 21 Ben Vellacott, 22 Cammy Scott, 23 Jack Brown.

Zebre Parma: 15 Jacopo Trulla, 14 Malik Faissal, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Damiano Mazza, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giovanni Montemauri, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Giovanni Licata (c), 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Giacomo Ferrari, 5 Alessandro Ortombina, 4 Matteo Canali, 3 Ion Neculai, 2 Giovanni Quattrini, 1 Paolo Buonfiglio
Replacements: 16 Shilo Klein, 17 Muhamed Hasa, 18 Matteo Nocera, 19 Leonard Krumov, 20 Iacopo Bianchi, 21 Thomas Dominguez, 22 Martin Roger Farias, 23 Enrico Lucchin

Referee: Christopher Allison (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Ru Campbell (Scotland), David Young (Scotland)
TMO: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)