James Lowe had a debut to remember in Leinster blue as he chipped in with two tries and an assist in the province’s 36-10 bonus point victory away to Benetton Rugby.
Man-of-the-match James Lowe opened his Leinster account with a 16th-minute score from captain Luke McGrath’s pass, with the scrum half also setting up Jordi Murphy’s try eight minutes before half-time at Stadio di Monigo.
The visitors led 17-3 at the interval, with Ross Byrne kicking the other points in response to Tommaso Allan’s eighth-minute opener off the tee. Leinster dominated the second quarter and Josh van der Flier was held up just before referee David Wilkinson’s half-time whistle.
The Italians got back into contention with a Juan Nacho Brex try before the hour mark, but Leo Cullen’s men controlled the final quarter with further scores from Garry Ringrose, on his return from shoulder surgery, skipper McGrath and Lowe capping off a runaway victory.
The result sees Leinster retain second place in Conference B of the GUINNESS PRO14, with the Scarlets now only three points ahead following their defeat to the Toyota Cheetahs. It also maintains the province’s winning momentum ahead of their eagerly-awaited back-to-back Champions Cup clashes with Exeter Chiefs.
Speaking after the game, Leinster head coach Cullen said: “There were a lot of good things, I thought we took some good chances when they came. It was a little bit of a stop-start game as the pitch was quite heavy.
“It was a little bit of a slog and there were plenty of errors from both teams at various stages. But we’re very happy to get the win as we’ve seen Treviso, they came very close away to Ulster last week. They’ve been in reasonably good form and it’s a tricky place to come to and get a result so we’re delighted to get the win.”
Italy international Allan split the posts to punish an initial scrum offence by Andrew Porter before the Leinster pack were guilty of walking it around. It was the only time Benetton led in the entire game.
The returning van der Flier was prominent in defence early on, making one bone-crunching tackle which forced a knock-on, but it took a while for newcomer Lowe to hit his stride after a couple of early errors.
Referee Wilkinson’s whistle was regularly blown during a stop-start first quarter, but Leinster built momentum via strong carries from props Porter and Jack McGrath, and after a penalty to the corner set up a lineout maul, Luke McGrath broke to the left to send Lowe over past the covering defender.
Byrne added the extras from the left wing for a 7-3 lead and then put seven points between the sides at the end of a prolonged attacking spell from the visitors, during which Noel Reid, Byrne and Lowe all attempted grubber kicks to split the Benetton defence.
A Scott Fardy lineout steal kept Leinster on the front foot with the penalties beginning to stack up against Benetton, including a Cherif Traore shoulder charge on Byrne which led to the latter’s 25th-minute penalty goal.
Flanker Murphy took a great line just past the half hour mark, coming from deep to hurtle onto a Luke McGrath pass, break a tackle and score to the left of the posts. Byrne converted and he also flung a last-minute penalty towards the left corner, however van der Flier was thwarted by Benetton’s robust defence on their line.
Kieran Crowley’s charges had the better of the third quarter, gradually getting into scoring range. Robert Barbieri had a try ruled out for a knock-on, but a Reid high tackle allowed Benetton to set up camp close to the Leinster line, working through a series of pick-and-goes before centre Brex barged in under the posts with 56 minutes on the clock.
Allan’s conversion closed the gap to 17-10, only for Leinster to mount an excellent response. Lowe darted up the left wing and had good support from Jordan Larmour, Fardy went close to scoring before Byrne’s bullet-like pass put Ringrose stepping in off the right touchline to dot down close to the posts.
Byrne’s conversion was preceded by a yellow card for Brex, who was singled out for a no-arms tackle in the build-up. Leinster got in behind Benetton again just four minutes later to bag the bonus point. Ringrose freed up his hands in a tackle to release Lowe over halfway and he passed back inside for McGrath to finish off, carrying a defender with him over the whitewash – 29-10.
A Lowe-inspired attack set the wheels in motion for a fifth and final try, with 12 minutes remaining. Lineout possession was moved wide with Reid’s long pass putting Lowe in a one-on-one with Marty Banks and he beat his fellow Kiwi to dive over in the left corner.
Byrne’s well-struck conversion put 26 points between the sides and that is how it remained up to full-time, with Cullen giving Clontarf prop Vakh Abdaladze his debut on the 70-minute mark. A late scrum penalty would have pleased both Abdaladze and the watching coaches.
Cullen added: “We’ve got a couple of guys who have come in for their first games for Leinster, James Lowe on the wing and Vakh who has come through the Academy. It’s great to get another young player into the team. Positive experience for those two guys so reasonably pleased with the evening’s work.
“Garry has been out the longest, hasn’t played since the summer tour so had to do a lot of work to get to this point. It was great to see him straight back in and he looked at home and scored a try as well.
“Josh had been going really well for us up until that point he got injured so great to have him back and adds to the depth as we enter into a huge block of games – the two Exeter games and then there’s three interpros in 11 days. And then the final two games in Europe so it’s a huge block.
“It’s been good to look at a few different combinations over the last couple of weeks and it’s a nice competitive environment for next week.”
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