Leinster dig in to win derby dogfight

Connacht ……….0 Leinster ……….10

■By JOHN FALLON

LEO Cullen aptly summed up how to approach a dogged derby clash in the wind and rain at the Sportsground as Leinster maintained their winning start to the URC season.

“You take your four points, get back on the bus and off you go again,” said the Leinster head coach. “I know the game is not a classic but there is great intent and desire to represent and give everything to your team.”

There were only two scores, one three minutes after the start and the other three minutes from the end. But that was enough to chalk up a fifth win for Leinster as Connacht, falling to their fourth defeat, were held scoreless in Galway for the first time since 2004.

Promising scrum-half Cormac Foley delivered the only try when he supplied the finish in the left corner after the superb Josh van der Flier had driven through Colm Reilly. Ross Byrne added the difficult conversion.

After that it developed into a dour fowards battle. Connacht dominated the lineout without making it count, Leinster were on top in the scrum but struggled against a good home defence. Both sides failed to make lineout drives after penalties count and Byrne was off target twice either side of the break when opting to go for the posts from distance.

Leinster eventually wrapped it up three minutes from time when Ciaran Frawley converted a penalty.