Ulster claim famous win at Leinster while Dragons victory puts Sharks bottom

Planet Rugby
Ulster's Nick Timoney looks on during a URC clash.

Ulster's Nick Timoney looks on during a URC clash.

Ulster claimed a famous victory over Leinster as they won 22-21 at the RDS in a hugely entertaining United Rugby Championship (URC) clash on New Year’s Day.

A brace of tries from Nick Timoney and one from Jacob Stockdale helped them seal a narrow win on the road, with John Cooney slotting two conversions and a penalty goal.

Leinster‘s tries came from Cian Healy, Rob Russell and Dan Sheehan while young Sam Prendergast and Harry Byrne added extras from the tee as they suffered a rare defeat.

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Taking a leaf out of Sale’s book, Billy Burns deftly kicked in behind the rush defence early on. Timoney gathered the ball, beat Russell’s attempted tackle and slid over despite Ciaran Frawley’s challenge.

Following Cooney’s conversion, Timoney and Stuart McCloskey were soon flooding forward again in atrociously wet conditions. Leinster’s defence was exposed by another Burns kick, giving Stockdale a comfortable run-in on the left.

Trailing 12-0 early on, the Leinster forwards seized control and Healy crashed over for his 31st try in 270 provincial appearances, which Prendergast converted.

The table-toppers edged ahead after Prendergast and Tommy O’Brien had put Russell over in the 23rd minute.

Prendergast had reacted quickest to a kick from Jamison Gibson-Park that bounced back off the crossbar, and the 20-year-old fly-half also converted with aplomb.

However, five minutes before the interval, Luke Marshall and Tom O’Toole both carried well before Burns’ cross-field kick went over Prendergast’s head and bounced up for Timoney to double his tally.

Cooney curled over a classy conversion and he opened the second half’s scoring with a 55th-minute penalty.

Nonetheless, with Ulster‘s line-out letting them down, Leinster closed the gap to just 22-21 with a timely try from Sheehan.

Joe McCarthy’s charge-down on Cooney had lifted the hosts beforehand and the newly-introduced Byrne nailed the difficult conversion.

Victorious at the Ballsbridge venue in 2013 and 2021, the Ulstermen knuckled down in defence with Marshall crucially intercepting a Gibson-Park pass.

Replacement Nathan Doak’s inch-perfect kick also forced Frawley to concede a line-out near the Leinster line.

Last beaten at the RDS by the Bulls in June 2022, Leinster won a last-gasp scrum penalty, but Byrne overcooked his long-range kick to touch, leaving Ulster to celebrate a famous win.

Dragons edge Scarlets to climb of bottom

Elsewhere, the Dragons picked up a crucial 13-12 victory over Scarlets that moves of them off the bottom of the URC table as the Sharks drop to 16th spot in their place.

Scarlets fly-half Sam Costelow missed two late kicks at goal to allow Dragons to claim a much-needed triumph.

After a Boxing Day thrashing at Cardiff, Dragons made wholesale changes and it paid dividends with a spirited performance which saw them win the last Welsh derby of the festive period.

For most of the game they were marginally the better side but Scarlets still outscored them in terms of tries.

Aaron Wainwright scored Dragons’ try with Cai Evans adding two penalties and a conversion.

Tom Rogers and Ioan Lloyd scored Scarlets’ tries, one of which Costelow converted.

On his 100th appearance for them, Wainwright led out the Dragons and his side were soon ahead when Evans kicked a fourth-minute penalty.

Two minutes later, Evans was presented with another opportunity but this time his 50-metre attempt sailed wide.

However, Dragons were able to maintain the pressure with all of the first 15 minutes being played out in the visitors’ half but that period was easily forgettable as the try-line was never threatened.

In the incessant rain neither side were prepared to risk handling errors so kicking was the main order of the day.

After 20 minutes, Scarlets suddenly bucked the trend and with their first attack scored the opening try. A well-timed pass from Costelow created a gap for Ioan Lloyd with the full-back sending Rogers racing away to score.

Scarlets then suffered two blows in quick succession. First they lost wing, Steff Evans, to a failed HIA before Wainwright rewarded a number of forward drives by powering over from close range. Evans converted and Dragons held a deserved 10-7 interval lead.

Scarlets began the second half by conceding a number of penalties, the last of which Evans knocked over to extend the home side’s lead.

That score was the only one of a desperately poor third quarter with both sides unable to cope with the desperate playing conditions with knock-ons a prominent feature.

Dragons brought on forwards Leon Brown and Ollie Griffiths for the final quarter with Scarlets introducing Keiran Hardy in place of Gareth Davies at scrum-half.

With 12 minutes remaining, Scarlets scored an excellent try which belied the conditions. In the home 22, their forwards maintained possession with a number of forward drives before moving the ball swiftly in the opposite direction for Lloyd to dummy his way over.

Costelow missed the conversion and soon afterwards a straightforward penalty from only 20 metres out to give Dragons a morale-boosting victory.

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