Kearney Claims Hat-Trick As Leinster Win Ten-Try Tussle

Leinster ran out 48-31 bonus point winners over Zebre as Dave Kearney picked up a hat-trick in a Guinness PRO14 points-fest in Parma.

Despite having Alex Soroka sin-binned, Leo Cullen’s men broke into a 31-12 half-time lead with tries from Dan Sheehan, Cian Kelleher, Luke McGrath and Kearney guiding them to the bonus point.

Kearney had his hat-trick and Sheehan his brace by the 64th minute, taking the visitors’ try haul to seven. Zebre finished strongly with two closing scores from Eduardo Bello and Niccolo Taddia.

Leinster did fall behind to Antonio Rizzi’s early penalty for a ruck infringement, and the Zebre out-half doubled their advantage in the sixth minute.

However, the province gained ominous ground through Soroka, Scott Penny and Jack Dunne, putting hooker Sheehan in position to reach over for a try converted by Harry Byrne.

The Leinster number 10 put them into double figures from a subsequent penalty, but towards the end of the first quarter, heavily-involved number Soroka saw yellow for a high tackle.

Rizzi’s three-pointer made it a one-point game, yet Leinster soon found another gear in attack. Solid set piece ball led to them sucking in defenders, and Byrne and Rory O’Loughlin combined to set Kelleher free to make it 17-9.

Rizzi kept Zebre in touch with his fourth penalty, only for his clearance kick from the restart to be charged down by McGrath. The Leinster captain successfully dotted the ball down just before it went dead.

Byrne converted and also added the extras to a terrific 37th-minute score from Kearney, who rounded it off after some impressive approach play by Sheehan, McGrath, Byrne, O’Loughlin and Max O’Reilly.

Now armed with a 19-point buffer, Leinster kept pressing for scores on the resumption. Penny stormed out of the 22, Guinness player-of-the-match O’Loughlin then took the ball on and a likely try eluded them when the ball bobbled away from Kelleher.

Zebre fought back with some scrum pressure before Jamie Elliott flung a pass out for winger Giovanni D’Onofrio to go over unopposed. Rizzi’s conversion went over off the post – 31-19.

Nonetheless, the Italians had their own yellow card to deal with when Jimmy O’Brien’s pass was slapped down by winger Pierre Bruno for a deliberate knock-on.

Leinster were ruthless in response, stringing together two tries in little over three minutes. The first one was a textbook maul effort from Sheehan, who has now scored six times in nine appearances.

The best of the lot came soon after, lock Dunne breaking the defensive line and Kearney and Sheehan both gained ground before replacement scrum half Hugh O’Sullivan kept up the high tempo.

Byrne created the opening with a long skip pass to O’Loughlin, who fed Kearney for a diving finish in the left corner. O’Sullivan took on the kicking duties and nailed a classy touchline conversion.

Kearney weighed in with his third try, 16 minutes from the end, brilliantly getting the better of two defenders to go over on the left again.

It was all started by a Penny turnover penalty, which Byrne took quickly and then replacement Jamie Osborne’s nicely-timed pass released Kearney down the touchline.

Tim Corkery joined fellow UCD clubman Sean O’Brien on the pitch to make it two debutants for Leinster in Parma. Disappointingly, the Blues gave away two tries late on.

Replacement Bello burst clear of a lineout maul to touch down in the 73rd minute, with Rizzi converting. Taddia plunged over from another well-executed drive in the dying seconds.