Rabo PRO 12: Great weekend for Irish provinces so far

It’s three out of three for the Irish provinces so far in the RaboDirect PRO 12 League, with Leinster, Munster and Connacht all enjoying victories this weekend.

Results:

Saturday 24 September

Llanelli Scarlets 10-15 Leinster

Friday 23 September

Cardiff Blues 13-18 Munster

Connacht 17-13 Newport Gwent-Dragons

15 points from the boot of Isa Nacewa were to thank for a valuable Leinster win over the Llanelli Scarlets in Wales. Nacewa kicked five penalties to earn Joe Schmidt’s side their second win of the season and bounce back immediately from their disappointing reverse to the Glasgow Warriors last weekend.

Leinster led 6-3 at the break, but found themselves behind early in the second half after Dan Newton converted a Lee Williams try to put the Scarlets a point in front after Nacewa had put over another penalty early in the second half.

Leinster managed to restrict Scarlets to Williams’ converted try in the second half and two further penalties earned the visitors a hard fought but deserved five-point win.

On Friday night, Ian Keatley kicked all 18 points as Munster escaped from Cardiff with a narrow victory over the Blues which was almost snatched from them in the dying stages.

Alex Cuthbert touched down in the final move of the game for the hosts, but the referee adjudged that there had been a forward pass in the build up and Cardiff were left to rue what was a third disallowed try of the night.

Munster had Keatley to thank for what was their fourth successive win of the Rabo Direct PRO 12 campaign. The former Connacht out-half was unerring with boot all night, kicking six penalties which was enough to keep the Blues at bay despite a second half Cuthbert try and eight points from the boot of Ceri Sweeney.

The victory was Munster’s 14th successive win in the competition and puts them on top of the table with a 100 per cent record so far this season.

At the Sportsground, Connacht continued their excellent start to the season with a victory over the Newport Gwent Dragons, their third win in four games.

Eric Elwood’s side trailed 13-3 at the break after a try from Nathan Williams and eight points from Jason Tovey for the visitors, but the Westerners managed to outscore their Welsh opponents 14-0 after half-time.

Eoin Griffin and new captain Gavin Duffy crossed over for tries for Connacht, both of which were converted by Matthew Jarvis for a four point lead.

Connacht remained on the front foot for the remainder of the 80 minutes as they searched for a score to put an end to Dragons’ challenge and even though it didn’t arrive, Elwood will be more than happy with yet another victory in what was been an impressive start to the season.