Southern Kings 10
Leinster 31
LEINSTER RAN IN five tries as they beat the Southern Kings 31-10 at a disappointingly empty Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, in what is meant to be an historic day in South African and Guinness Pro14 rugby.
It was a patient and workman-like performance from Leo Cullen’s charges to remain unbeaten in the competition after three rounds. On top of that, Leinster have secured three bonus point wins in a row to comfortably top Conference B on 15 points.
It was the hosts that got on the scoreboard first with a pretty straightforward penalty via the boot of the fullback Masixole Banda in the fourth minute.
It was a patience game by the Irish outfit, and they made their first trip into the Kings 22 count when centre Noel Reid crashed over in the 10th minute for a converted try. Hence, he earns the distinction of scoring the first ever Pro14 try in South Africa.
Both teams had their opportunities to gain further points in the opening stanza, and had the Leinster scrum-half and man of the match Luke McGrath collected an offload in the 18th minute, he may well have crossed of the whitewash for the visitors second try.
Oliver Zono, who was a late replacement for Kurt Coleman at flyhalf, also nearly scored a five-pointer and in fact, he actually did cross the line, however, the touch judge had his flag up after Yaw Penxe stepped on the touchline before offloading to Zono.
As it was to be, neither side were able to convert further opportunities in the first 40 minutes and the players returned to the dressing rooms with the scoreboard reading 7-3 in favour of Leinster.
The eastern province started the second 40 minutes with a lot more purpose and within two minutes after the restart, Rory O’Loughlin crashed over for an unconverted try.
Mere minutes later the visitors went over for their third try, and as was the case with the O’Loughlin score, it was as a result of penalty and good lineout, but this time it was the back-rower Jack Conan who powered his way over.
The floodgates were opened and after a patient build-up Joey Carbery went over in the left corner for the bonus point try. Carbery could have has his brace less than 10 minutes later, but it was not to be after a Cian Healy knock-on in the build-up.
Leinster once again set up another well-worked try from a penalty lineout with eight minutes remaining on the clock, winger Dave Kearney the man rounding off the move.
The home side got a consolation try in 75th minute when Jacques Nel — brother of the Springbok Sevens star Ruhan Nel — scored under the posts.
Leinster head for Cape Town where the will spend the majority of the week, before making the 1000km trip to Bloemfontein to face the Toyota Cheetahs on Friday evening.
Southern Kings scorers:
Tries: Jacques Nel
Penalties: Masixole Banda [1 from 1]
Conversions: Ntabeni Dukisa [1 from 1]
Leinster scorers:
Tries: Noel Reid, Rory O’Loughlin, Jack Conan, Joey Carbery, Dave Kearney
Conversions: Ross Byrne [3 from 4]
Southern Kings: 15 Masixole Banda, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Berton Klaasen, 12 Luzuko Vulindlu, 11 Sibusiso Sithole, 10 Oliver Zono, 9 Rudi van Rooyen, 8 Andisa Ntsila, 7 Victor Sekekete, 6 Khaya Majola, 5 Dries van Schalkwyk, 4 Stephen Greeff, 3 Luvuyo Pupuma, 2 Michael Willemse (captain), 1 Schalk Ferreira.
Replacements: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 Petrus Strauss, 18 Martin Dreyer, 19 Bobby de Wee, 20 Siyabulela Mdaka, 21 Godlen Masimla, 22 Ntabeni Dukisa, 23 Jacques Nel.
Leinster: 15 Joey Carbery, 14 Adam Byrne, 13 Rory O’Loughlin, 12 Noel Reid, 11 Dave Kearney, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Jordi Murphy, 6 Rhys Ruddock (captain), 5 James Ryan, 4 Ross Molony, 3 Andrew Porter, 2 Seán Cronin, 1 Ed Byrne.
Replacements: 16 James Tracy, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Michael Bent, 19 Mick Kearney, 20 Josh van der Flier, 21 Nick McCarthy, 22 Cathal Marsh, 23 Jordan Larmour.
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU).
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If it was a tennis player he’d be back in action in about 18 months
@Catherine Sims:
If he was Russian he’d be back last week.
@Catherine Sims: if he was Russian he’d be…. well get away with it
@David Sinclair: Yeah – like there is no sportsmen banned from Russia. Did you slept last 10 years people ???
As soon as Billy Walsh left the Irish boxing team went down the tubes. It’s rare that one man can make such a difference but the display in the Olympics together with this, shows how badly needed was.
@prop joe: lol you haven’t a clue do you Joe
@Gareth: yeah, they are doing so well without him.
@prop joe: that’s harsh man on the years of effort the boxers put in. Obviously him leaving under the circumstances, but the circumstances and scrutiny on the team leading up to the Olympics just days before had a collective effect on the team, particularly Joe ward and Katie’s performances. And slagging them now is disingenuous and ignorant.
Sometimes I wonder how many sports stars, if any, have an operation like Lance Armstrong did where they aren’t being caught because of it. It seems to happen in the UFC and tennis, I wonder about football and rugby etc
@happy: definitely in football. But because there is such interest and money in the sport, they will never get done. You just have to shake your head and wonder why there were over 70 redacted names in the Operation Puerto case. A few cyclists names came out of the report because it was round the time of the Armstrong case. Then all of a sudden they froze every other name in the report, even though they physically still have the blood samples.
Not to mention around those years Spain win the Euro’s, and the World Cup, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the top teams in the world and Nadal was winning everything under the sun in tennis, and then suddenly he had a massive knee injury and is out for up to a year as the case is going through the media. Hmmm funny that.
@Jonathan Nolan: funny that a case that led to arrests in 2006 could lead you to thinking that it is related to European championship wins in 2010 and 2014 , World Cup win in 2012 and a dozen Grand Slam wins by Nadal in 2009 to 2017 . No positives ever received in 1000s of tests .
Nadal won his libel case against the French sports minister , and would win it against you too .
Is this also in his culture ?
@chinaski: We have greatest culture in the world – there is no second country so “agreeable” like us. We let our “allies” to rip us off, to use our lands, sea, airports, banks, we do whatever they want. How dare they to ban our sportsmen like that so ?!
Spent a year and a half dragging the arse out of it like all the cheats do.
@Shane Gleeson: slime
In the interest of equality, everyone athlete should take drugs, just to level the playing field.
4 years is a disgrace !!! Hope it doesn’t run him out the sport for good cause he’s 1 of the most talented boxers we’ve ever seen in Ireland.
@AL Thornton: Do the crime do the time, A drugs cheat , disgraced the country.
@AL Thornton: I know very little about this sport I do know if it’s proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the doping happened no matter it’s in China Russia or this Country then they should be gone. Reading some of the comments here you would think he took a packet of sweets.
@AL Thornton: your right it is a disgrace alright.
It should be life. 4 years backdated? Not enough. Cheats out.
@Samuel Karl Toland:
Who Supplies them with Drugs….
@AL Thornton: Hopefully it does run him out of the sport. That’s surely the only way to say good riddance to drugs cheats like him. 4 years is pittance.
@Mike: I’m all for banning cheats but there isn’t the same sanctions for cheats across all sports and all countries. It there was more uniformity around bans people wouldn’t be complaining. The fact is though he gets 4 years because he’s not a Russian or a wealthy well known tennis player. Bans should be for all cheats.
@AL Thornton: it should be a life ban.
@Gerry Murphy: as far as I know he took a protein shake from a pal at his boxing club but never checked with the Irish set up if the shake was ok for him to take. There was a small trace of a banned substance in it but it’s wasn’t performance enhancement
@AL Thornton: talent shouldn’t need drugs
@billy Dorney: But it needs supplements!
@AL Thornton: you’re naive
@Catherine Sims: In a perfect world, there would be uniformity in terms of sanctions against drugs cheats. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. It doesn’t mean that we can or should go easy on our cheats just because the Russians (who have zero credibility as a result) run a doping programme. We’re either for or against drugs in sport, it’s black or white.
What a shame…
Idiot. Should never be allowed play again.
@Sean Dilligan: does one play boxing?
@Minom Pnnomm: it’s a game and he plays it
@Alison Maguire: does one play boxing??
@Paul Reid: he plays a sports game called boxing
Dope