Pro 14

[Wallpaperman]

Dragons down to 14, Lloyd Fairbrother in the bin. Dragons lineout malfunctioning a few times in a row there

[Wallpaperman]

And the try arrives, shame. Just another bashing over effort. 21-15 after 48 minutes

[Wallpaperman]

Some excellent defence from the Dragons, drive Leinster back to half way, then they concede a scrum penalty, lineout, lineout drive, penalty try, Baker in the bin, down to 13. Effing Nora

[Wallpaperman]

Back up to 14, lots of possession on the Leinster 22, but its coughed up, kick down field, knock on from Jordan Williams, its not his night

[Wallpaperman]

Nice try from the replacement hooker Sheehan, Jordan didn’t fancy the tackle...

[Wallpaperman]

...and Ryan gets him straight off. Dragons back up to 15, Scott Fardy off the bench for Leinster

[Wallpaperman]

Try Dragons from Luke Baldwin, the replacement scrum half after a series of scrum penalties. 22-35 with about 7 minutes to go. Greg Bateman has carried well off the bench.

[Wallpaperman]

Cracking defence by the Dragons again, earn a penalty on the Leinster 10 metre line, about 2 and a half minutes to go. TMO against Dragons but unclear.

[Wallpaperman]

Try Dragons on 79 minutes, well worked. 29-35, kick off to come.

[Wallpaperman]

WTF ? Dragons claim the kick off, 2 phases and Sam Davies kicked it off ? Shane Williams called it flying the white flag and he’s right. 35-29 Leinster in the end. Conan man of the match, no quarrel here. Fry had a really good game fo the Dragons and Jack Dixon was probably the pick of their backs overall, some good tackles and he carried hard. Baker looked useful, despite the yellow card, and Carter gets a mention for his incredible engine and work rate, but he got picked off for a couple of crucial lineouts at the start of the second half. In all fairness, Screech going off meant he was the only major target and he was well marked. Bateman carried really well and almost got a try near the end, no harm done as the Dragons scored a couple of phases later.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Damn, sounds like it was quite a match.

[Son of Mathonwy]

WTF ? Dragons claim the kick off, 2 phases and Sam Davies kicked it off ? Shane Williams called it flying the white flag and he’s right. 35-29 Leinster in the end. Conan man of the match, no quarrel here. Fry had a really good game fo the Dragons and Jack Dixon was probably the pick of their backs overall, some good tackles and he carried hard. Baker looked useful, despite the yellow card, and Carter gets a mention for his incredible engine and work rate, but he got picked off for a couple of crucial lineouts at the start of the second half. In all fairness, Screech going off meant he was the only major target and he was well marked. Bateman carried really well and almost got a try near the end, no harm done as the Dragons scored a couple of phases later.

Tough call that, kicking the ball out at the end. Very deflating for the fans. But probably the sensible choice - minimal chance of scoring a (converted) try at the death, compared with the much higher chance that Leinster could get the penalty, drop goal or try which would rob the Dragons of that hard-won bonus point. Painful though.

[paddy no 11]

Davies didn't have many options around him in fairness

[Wallpaperman]

Davies didn't have many options around him in fairness

He was only ever looking to kick it off. It took the shine off a really gutsy Dragons performance for me, Bateman Dixon and Baker all looked capable of taking the ball into contact and making a yard or two, and you have to have a chance of making a line break with Aneurin Owen, Jonah Holmes and Ashton Hewitt in the backline. Also, they mentioned in commentary that Scott Fardy was leaving the field after the last Dragons try, so Leinster may have been down to 14. Then again, Dean Ryan has backed Davies, and I’ve got a lot of time for what he has done at the Dragons, but I bet at least some of the team are thinking ‘we could have had Leinster’ today.

Talking of Dean Ryan, I wouldn’t want to be Jordan Williams at the next training session. He skilfully avoided making tackles on the first and last Leinster tries.

Taine Basham will want to get fit as soon as possible, as he won’t be getting the 7 shirt back of Ben Fry any time soon if he keeps playing like that.

[paddy no 11]

Davies didn't have many options around him in fairness

He was only ever looking to kick it off. It took the shine off a really gutsy Dragons performance for me, Bateman Dixon and Baker all looked capable of taking the ball into contact and making a yard or two, and you have to have a chance of making a line break with Aneurin Owen, Jonah Holmes and Ashton Hewitt in the backline. Also, they mentioned in commentary that Scott Fardy was leaving the field after the last Dragons try, so Leinster may have been down to 14. Then again, Dean Ryan has backed Davies, and I’ve got a lot of time for what he has done at the Dragons, but I bet at least some of the team are thinking ‘we could have had Leinster’ today.

Talking of Dean Ryan, I wouldn’t want to be Jordan Williams at the next training session. He skilfully avoided making tackles on the first and last Leinster tries.

Taine Basham will want to get fit as soon as possible, as he won’t be getting the 7 shirt back of Ben Fry any time soon if he keeps playing like that.

You are correct

[Wallpaperman]

Very dominant first 40 for Scarlets v Benetton, 4 tries scored and a 26-3 lead. Benetton had 2 front rowers in the bin in quick succession and the Scarlets got 2 tries against the 13 men. The dominance, surprisingly, stemmed from the scrum and lineout (with Elias hitting his targets). The only fly in the ointment is Costelow going off with an ankle injury.

All of the Scarlets forwards have gone well - Phil Price must have won 4 or 5 penalties in the scrum, and a big chunk of the half was played in Benetton’s 22. Ball and Kalemafoni have carried heavily, and Morgan Jones disrupted a lineout maul to force a knock on the only time Benetton looked like scoring.

Hero of the half is Jac Morgan with 2 tries, very impressive indeed, good aggression to finish the first from close range and he went past or through 4 defenders for his second. Anything Ben Fry can do, Jac Morgan can do better !

[Wallpaperman]

Fair play Benetton, first try of the second half, and a good one though the ref missed a forward pass on the cutback. They were unlucky to have one disallowed a few minutes previously

[Wallpaperman]

More even second half, 2 tries each and the Scarlets edged it 15-14, for a final score of 41-17. Scarlets tried to run from deep in the second half, enjoyable game, Jac Morgan man of the match, he got a good turnover penalty. Shanklin and Holley joking about his rumoured move to the Ospreys. Another terrific prospect at 7. 5 points for the Scarlets puts pressure on the Blues later.

[Wallpaperman]

Ropey start for the Ospreys. Have lost first 3 lineouts, Zebre missed a simple penalty and the full back knocked on with the line begging. Now a scrum penalty.

[Wallpaperman]

Poor game in the rain, Zebre the better team. Both have missed fairly easy penalty attempts, still 0-0. Ospreys have lost 4 lineouts

[Wallpaperman]

Time for the Osprey to blow a try, twice. Still 0-0 after 30

[Wallpaperman]

Ospreys better as it gets close to half time, chances wasted but ultimately a kick in front of the posts, they leased 3-0 at half time

[Sandydragon]

The Ospreys game is a comedy of errors.

[Buggaluggs]

Dammit. I missed the first half. What did I miss?

[Wallpaperman]

Crikey. Still 3-0 after 63 minutes ! Zebre playing most of the rugby