Guinness PRO14 round-up: Munster, Glasgow Warriors & Leinster victorious
Saturday 23 February 2019 15:11, UK
We recap Friday night's Guinness PRO14 action as Munster, Glasgow and Leinster overcame the Ospreys, Connacht and Kings respectively...
Ospreys 13-19 Munster
Munster came out on top in a tight battle with Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium as the Irish side's 19-13 victory kept them top of Conference A of the Guinness PRO14.
Visiting tries came from Darren Sweetnam, a penalty score and Mike Haley with JJ Hanrahan kicking the rest of the points for the men in red at the Liberty Stadium.
Ospreys head coach Allen Clarke admitted before kick-off his team were playing to show they deserve to retain their status in Welsh rugby amid continuing financial uncertainty.
They certainly gave it everything as Hanno Dirksen crossed and Luke Price kicked two penalties and a conversion, but it was not enough.
Glasgow 43-17 Connacht
Glasgow secured a bonus-point win against PRO14 rivals Connacht to move to within a point of leaders Munster.
Connacht came into the game immediately behind second-placed Glasgow in Conference A, but the hosts effectively won the game in the first half.
They opened the scoring in the first minute with a try from scrum half George Horne and then closed strongly, with tries in the 32nd and 38th minutes, set up by forward drives and registered by Tim Swinson and Grant Stewart.
A second try from Stewart after 45 minutes got the try bonus point. However, Glasgow then let Connacht into the game to add tries through Paul Boyle and Tom Daly, the latter converted by Kyle Godwin, to Stephen Fitzgerald's first-half
effort.
Glasgow did add a late brace of tries through Robbie Nairn and stand off Brandon Thomson converted every kick bar the last.
Leinster 59-19 Kings
Ed Byrne and Noel Reid both scored two first-half tries as Leinster thrashed Southern Kings 59-19 in the Guinness PRO14.
The runaway Conference B leaders had secured a bonus point by the 37th minute and ended up running in nine tries in total against their struggling South African opponents.
The Kings briefly led midway through the first half, with Bjorn Basson and Sarel Pretorius scoring in quick succession, but man-of-the-match Byrne's rapid-fire double and centre Reid's second of the night gave Leo Cullen's men a 24-12 interval advantage.
The youthful Leinster side, which included 21-year-old debutant hooker Ronan Kelleher, leaked a third try to Kings full-back Ulrich Beyers but rattled off five more of their own with Barry Daly, Andrew Porter, Max Deegan, Paddy Patterson and fellow replacement Rory O'Loughlin all touching down.
