Boot-iful day for Nacewa
Isa Nacewa kicked all five of his penalty attempts to help Leinster clinch a 15-13 win over their provincial rivals Connacht.
Last Updated: 01/01/12 7:33pm
Isa Nacewa's perfect day with the boot made sure Leinster triumphed 15-13 over their provincial rivals Connacht in the RaboDirect PRO12.
Nacewa slotted over all five penalties he attempted to give the visitors a narrow win, despite their opponents scoring two tries.
Connacht took advantage of sin-binnings for Isaac Boss and Leo Cullen as they created scores for Tiernan O'Halloran and Ethienne Reynecke.
But Matthew Jarvis and replacement Miah Nikora missed both conversions, with the latter also watching his last-gasp drop-goal fall under the crossbar in a dramatic finish to proceedings.
League-record crowd
Defeat was tough for the hosts, who were looking for their first win in 12 outings in front of a league-record crowd of 6,582 at the Sportsground.
Jarvis, a late inclusion in the starting line-up, missed his first shot at the posts in the sixth minute and was wayward from further out five minutes later.
He did, however, manage to find the target with a 35-metre effort, punishing Leinster for bringing down a maul illegally.
Leinster were quick to respond, drawing a ruck infringement from John Muldoon which resulted in Nacewa slotting over his first penalty.
Another sweetly-struck kick into the wind from Nacewa, this time from 38 metres out, moved Joe Schmidt's men in front despite Connacht controlling much of the play.
It took a muscular drive from Rhys Ruddock to tee up Nacewa's third penalty just before the break, although only after referee John Lacey had moved the penalty into kickable range due to some complaints from Connacht players.
Connacht were back on the defensive in the early part of the second half, Nacewa maintaining his impressive form with a precise 49th-minute kick.
Chance
The sin-binning of Boss for interfering with Frank Murphy's pass from a ruck gave Connacht a chance to hit back - and they duly did with O'Halloran getting over just moments after fellow winger Brian Tuohy had been stretchered off.
The try was unconverted though, and Nacewa soon struck his fifth penalty goal of the night to move the reigning league leaders 15-8 clear.
But Connacht stuck doggedly to their task and with Cullen seeing yellow for taking out a lifter at a lineout, Reynecke charged over from the subsequent maul.
Nikora slipped as he tried to convert and then even more agonisingly the New Zealander had the accuracy but not the distance when attempting a game-winning drop-goal at the death, allowing Leinster to escape.
