Ronan Kelleher Stars In Leinster’s Eight-Try Triumph

Ronan Kelleher opened his Leinster try account with a well-taken hat-trick in their 53-5 GUINNESS PRO14 hammering of the Ospreys at the RDS.

The defending champions marked their first home game of the new season with an eight-try display, Fergus McFadden and 21-year-old hooker Kelleher crossing early on before Joe Tomane’s first home score for the province had them 22-0 ahead at half-time.

Back in Ireland just a week on from losing 38-14 to Ulster, the depleted Ospreys’ only consolation in Dublin was a late effort from Luke Morgan. Kelleher, the man-of-the-match, completed his hat-trick by the 49th minute and replacements Max Deegan, Harry Byrne and Michael Milne finished off this runaway victory.

An early Lloyd Ashley offside was punished with an opening penalty from Ross Byrne who then created McFadden’s try. Rory O’Loughlin reacted quickest to a turnover, chipping over the top with Hugo Keenan first to the ball, and a penalty advantage developed before Byrne’s cross-field kick was grounded by winger McFadden in the right corner.

An inviting hole in the Ospreys midfield was ruthlessly exploited when Peter Dooley sent Will Connors galloping past halfway and he fed the supporting Kelleher who showed impressive pace to romp over from outside the 22. Byrne converted before some untidy errors hampered the hosts’ progress.

The Ospreys were foiled by Caelan Doris’ turnover penalty and a second lineout steal of the night from Scott Fardy. Their poor run of luck with injuries also continued as Dan Evans and Ashley both hobbled off, with new signing Ben Glynn making a brief PRO14 debut before injury struck.

Tomane thundered onto a Byrne pass and through a couple of attempted tackles to register Leinster’s third try, seven minutes before the interval. Following Byrne’s conversion, the Ospreys enjoyed one of their best spells thanks to a Shaun Venter break and some late scrum pressure which, much to their annoyance, had no end-product.

The Ospreys began the second half with two hookers on the field – Scott Otten had to come on for replacement lock Glynn – and Kelleher in brilliant form. James Lowe chipped through and combined with Jamison Gibson-Park and Kelleher in a counter-ruck, the latter dribbling through and touching down from a few metres out.

With the bonus point secured, Leinster then used a penalty to set up a defence-splintering maul which handed Kelleher his third score. Another maul platform led to Deegan crashing over from a snappy Gibson-Park pass. Out-half Byrne landed both conversions to top off his 11-point contribution.

Dublin University scrum half Rowan Osborne came on to make his senior debut for Leinster, his speedy service a feature in the build-up to Byrne’s younger brother Harry slipping out of a tackle from Sam Cross to make it 46-0.

Academy prop Milne piled over at the end of twelve phases to crown his RDS debut with a converted try. The Ospreys finally got off the mark eight minutes from the end, as reserve scrum half Matthew Aubrey’s break and quickly-taken lineout sent Morgan over.

The Welsh region lost replacement back rower Gareth Evans to the sin-bin for a no-arms challenge on McFadden, but avoided a ninth concession when Keenan’s late try was ruled out for a forward pass from Deegan.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said after the game: “Everyone was a bit frustrated after last week (in Treviso), particularly the players. It was a great win away in terms of a result but the performance was a bit off, it’s fair to say. The guys worked hard in the short period of time they had this week and it was much, much, much better.

 

“It was much better across the board. There was an urgency to our actions and you could see the guys, for the most part, defending well, coming up off the line and making some good impact tackles as well. You probably got the sense we were stuck in third gear last week but it was much better today.”

Speaking about 22-year-old newcomer Osborne, he added: “Rowan is probably one of the best stories of all. Between Noel McNamara, who coached Rowan in school, and Tony Smeeth, they recommended him as someone we should maybe look at.

“It’s a great story for some of those late developers who don’t come through the Academy cycle. Rowan came in and had a short window during pre-season and he just goes about his business. He has been really good for the ‘A’ team in the Celtic Cup.”