Guinness PRO12: Zane Kirchner seals Leinster win over Connacht
Last Updated: 21/12/14 4:58pm
Zane Kirchner's opportunist 78th-minute try sealed a deserved 21-11 Guinness PRO12 victory for Leinster over Irish rivals Connacht on a cold, windy night at the RDS.
Matt Healy attempted to keep Jimmy Gopperth's touch-finding kick in play and Kirchner was able to swoop dramatically in the last minute to score as Leinster avenged their narrow September loss in Galway to the Westerners.
The hosts started the game confidently and Connacht soon felt the pressure crank up after losing one of their props Aly Muldowney to the sin-bin for taking out a support player at a lineout in their 22.
Having turned down three kickable penalties, Leinster finally broke the deadlock in the 12th minute as fit-again flanker Shane Jennings piled over on the end of a maul. Gopperth missed the left-sided conversion though.
A very high penalty count - seven to one - was taking its toll on the overworked visitors and Gopperth then nailed a close-in penalty, before Muldowney's return, to open a 8-0 lead.
Strong running from Robbie Henshaw and Matt Healy sparked a furious spell of Connacht attacking, but Hack Carty clipped a penalty wide from the left when their tails were up.
Although the wind affected Connacht's passing at times, better continuity set up Carty for his first successful kick on the half hour following a late tackle by Ireland No 8 Jamie Heaslip.
As the visitors attempted to make further headway, television match official Marshall Kilgore ruled that Danie Poolman's right foot was in touch as he attempted to ground Carty's cross-field kick in the right corner.
However, hands in the ruck saw Leinster prop Tadhg Furlong binned and Carty closed the gap to two points with the final kick of the first half.
The defending champions answered back on the restart with a long range Gopperth effort to regain their five point lead 11-6, and some nice touches from centres Luke Fitzgerald and Reid kept Connacht pinned back in their own half.
A deliberate knock-on by Willie Faloon allowed Gopperth to open up the scoreline further but Connacht were still full of endeavour despite being often caught static in possession.
Kane Douglas led Leinster's physical resistance and with their territorial dominance regained, Kieran Marmion had to be quick to deny home scrum-half Isaac Boss a close-range try.
But Connacht built momentum off Leinster penalties, with Devin Toner sin-binned for side-entry at a maul close to his line and, from the resulting lineout and drive, number eight Naoupu crashed over to give the visitors renewed hope at just 13-11 behind.
Carty missed a very difficult conversion into the wind, though, and Kirchner's converted score had the final say as Matt O'Connor's men climbed temporarily into second spot in the table.
