rugby union pro 14 18-2-19
PRO 14
EDINBURGH 34-17 DRAGONS
JUMPING JOHNSTONE
Edinburgh struck after eight minutes as van der Walt fed
Johnstone, who broke one tackle then wrong-footed three more defenders before
diving over and leaving the creator to add the conversion.
Dragons squared matters four minutes later when a slick
handling move stretched the home defence and James Benjamin fed Morgan, who
accelerated past a floundering tackle to dot down in the corner. Lewis banged
over the kick.
But the response was instant. Darcy Graham sprinted deep
into Dragons territory then released Johnstone for his second score of the
evening, with van der Walt again converting.
The Welshmen struck back almost immediately. Edinburgh
attempted to run the ball from inside their own half but Morgan latched onto a
pass from Dean and raced in between the sticks.
Lewis was on target with the straightforward conversion then
banged over a 40 metre penalty to edge Dragons in front for the first time.
Twice Edinburgh opted for touch rather than kickable
penalties and twice the Dragons defence held firm at the ensuing lineouts to
reach half time with a three point lead.
Edinburgh came flying out of the blocks after the restart
and Graham looked set to bag a try from a hack and chase. But Will
Talbot-Davies showed impressive pace to pip the home winger in the race to the
line.
Dragons replied with their best spell of the game. Rhodri
Williams tried to unlock the home defence with a grubber kick but it ran over
the dead ball line. Lewis then had an unsuccessful penalty attempt from long
range.
But that was the cue for the hosts to raise the pace and
they added to their points tally when van der Walt booted a penalty that hauled
Edinburgh back onto level terms with 25 minutes to play.
And the Scots regained the lead on 63 minutes, Bradbury
eventually plunging over for the third Edinburgh try and van der Walt added the
extras.
The stand off recorded his first miss after van der Merwe
secured the four-try bonus with an impressive solo effort. He raced at the
Dragons defence and broke a tackle before getting back to his feet and cutting
inside to touch down.
And the winger completed a satisfactory night for the hosts
when he took a scoring pass from Dougie Fife to cross the whitewash for a
second time.
MY
OPINION
This was a win of quality for
the scots and shows what they can do on any given day. This showed compete control
from them and the fact that they were able to kill off the game when needed is
a vital quality in a team as for the Dragons they must learn from their
mistakes.
OSPREYS 0-8 ULSTER
MIGHT MC CLOSKY
An unconverted try from big centre Stuart McCloskey and a
last-minute penalty from scrum-half John Cooney denied the Ospreys a losing
bonus point.
MY
OPINION
This is a skill in itself that
every team has to learn to do at some point and that is learning how to win a
bad game rather than a quality one and |Ulster had shown this week that they
have that ability now they have to be to use that momentum. For the Ospreys
there is little to learn.
MUNSTER 43-0 KINGS
HAPPY HOLLAND
Cronin dived over to open his try account for Munster in the
13th minute, centre Scannell converting.
Lerm saw yellow for taking out Cronin at a midfield ruck
before Conway was released for his try, scoring from Kleyn's pull-back pass and
a lovely floated delivery from Tyler Bleyendaal.
Mike Haley's broken-field running was the highlight of a
scrappy start to the second half, which remained scoreless until Conway's
grubber kick caught out the visitors near the left touchline.
Replacement Alby Mathewson also got his boot to the ball,
nudging it over the try-line before the onrushing Sweetnam grounded it
successfully. Scannell drilled the difficult conversion over for 19-0.
The extra point was sealed seven minutes later when Munster
number eight Arno Botha carried twice in quick succession before Holland barged
over from close range.
Munster, who lead Glasgow at the top of the table, dominated
the remainder of the game with hooker Marshall crossing for a converted maul
effort before Kruger was binned for a high tackle on Sweetnam and Ntsila
followed him for a tip tackle on Conway.
Marshall's throw to the front of a lineout played in Kleyn
for his 70th-minute try, and Scannell took advantage of Dan Goggin's challenge
on Bader Pretorius to run in a last-minute score.
MY
OPINION
This was a complete dominant performance
by Munster and says to me why they are in the mix for this Championship so many
different try scorers meant that this was not a team reliant on one single player
to do damage. As for the kings they are finding it difficult to get used to
European Rugby.
ZEBRE 24-40 LEINSTER
DEADLY DEEGAN
They got off to a fine start, with open-side flanker Deegan
touching down after a rolling maul and eased over from a line-out.
Dave Kearney raced through to touch down, with the third try
going to Ross Byrne who made it three out of three conversions for the 21-0
lead.
But Leo Cullen's side were given a shock when the hosts
struck back, full-back Brummer touching down after a spell of home pressure.
Former Northampton centre Jamie Elliott intercepted a ball
in the middle of the park to make it a quick-fire double and Gabriele Di Giulio
made it three tries in less than 10 minutes to get Zebre right back into the
contest.
The break came at a good time for the Irish province and
after Barry Daly had one disallowed for an earlier knock-on, skipper Fardy
restored the lead only for Brummer to pull one back with a quarter of the game
still remaining.
Another swift attack by the visitors was finished off by
O'Brien before Deegan rounded off the scoring with a sixth try.
MY
OPINION
This is showing to me that
Leinster can be beaten if you play against them the right way. I think that
Leinster should have been able to tear this team apart but they did not and I
can see a few problems with that type of mentality. I don’t know what exactly
Zebre can take from this except the fact they can score a lot against the big
teams
TREVISO 25-19 SCARLETS
RUNNING RUZZA
The Scarlets had dominated their hosts early on as they
opened a 12-7 thanks to tries by Kieran Hardy and Johnny McNicholl. Toa
Halafihi crashed over for Treviso’s only score of the first half.
Treviso came out firing in the second half. The hosts scored
an unconverted try and a penalty to take the lead for the first time. But New
Zealand duo Kieron Fonotia and McNicholl combined well to shred Treviso’s
defence as McNicholl went over for his second try which put the Scarlets back
in front.
Trailing by four in the last quarter, Treviso upped the ante
and were rewarded with a converted try and a late penalty to sink the Scarlets.
MY
OPINION
Treviso are having a brilliant
season this season but I think to improve themselves they needed that Challenge
Cup quarter and maybe staying at that level could help them for another season
but you do now think a Champions Cup is what they are going to get which will
harm them as they could not pull off that type of win yet and there are teams
that could destroy them.
CONNACHT 25-17 CHEETAS
BANG BUTLER
With Cheetahs running the ball at every opportunity, tries
from Sibahle Maxwane and Louis Fouche put them 12-3 up before Tom Farrell's
25th-minute reply.
Trailing 12-10 at the break, Tom McCartney's try edged
Connacht into the lead before Shaun Venter's superb breakaway score levelled
the contest.
But a Jack Carty's kick nudged Connacht ahead before Jarrad
Butler's late try.
Butler's score denied Cheetahs a losing bonus point which
was a harsh outcome for the visitors.
MY
OPINION
This result keeps Connacht in
touch with the play offs this season and a win they were expected to get at
home. The Cheetos are improving and might be able to do something in the next
couple of seasons.
BLUES 34-38 GLASGOW
FREKIN FRISBY
Wing Kyle Steyn could not gather cleanly to finish their
first chance, but Grigg ran in their first try when Evans' cross-kick went
astray and the centres then combined to put scrum-half Price over, Horne's
goals making it 17-7 in the first quarter.
Horne then crossed himself and converted on the half-hour
when the Scots turned over home possession, but Cardiff Blues kept the
blistering pace of the game going as Matthew Morgan created space for
Summerhill's second and Evans kicked the conversion to make it 14-24 at the
break.
The turn in momentum continued after the interval when Lane
sped in on the overlap for a corner try, before Evans landed a simple penalty
to cut the deficit to two points after 51 minutes.
Glasgow finally regained their dominance with sub scrum-half
Frisby crossing from close range after 69 minutes and Tameilau galloping in
from George Turner's charge straight from the kick-off, Horne extending the
lead to 16 points with two more conversions.
But a grandstand finish saw Summerhill grab his hat-trick
try from a grubber kick through, and Smith touched down from an Evans
cross-kick for the fly-half to convert.
Glasgow had enough composure left to play out the final two
minutes, but their fourth win of the season over Cardiff Blues was by the far
the hardest-fought with the try-count finishing at five apiece.
Glasgow prop Zander Ferguson lasted a solid 50 minutes on
his return from a five-month absence, while hooker Turner played 71 minutes in
his comeback.
MY OPINION
This was a cracker of a match and no
one deserved to lose it especially Summerhill who managed to score a home hat
trick. I think that Cardiff were very unlucky and could have even beaten a team
like Leinster or Saracens with a performance like this
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