Munster made light work of Zebre in Parma while Leinster were pushed all the way by Cardiff Blues in Dublin.
Zebre 14-50 Munster
Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi
A rampant Munster ran in seven tries in Italy as they dispatched Zebre on the road. Rassie Erasmus’ men continued their push to secure a home semi-final with a dominant win in Parma.
The home side never looked like getting into the game, with Muster dotting down three times in the opening 25 minutes. Man of the match Niall Scannell, Tommy O’Donnell and Ronan O’Mahony all got on the scoresheet to effectively put the game to bed before the half-hour mark.
Zebre did manage to hit back before half-time with a converted try courtesy of Derick Minnie, but a Tyler Bleyendaal penalty ensured Munster kept their momentum going into the break.
The gulf in class was even more evident after half time, with O’Mahony and Rory Scannell running in tries number four and five for the visitors.
Despite losing scrum half Marcelo Violi to the sin-bin, Zebre did cross the try line for a second time, Lloyd Greef clawing a score back to cut Munster’s lead to 22 points.
But Munster continued to press and grabbed their sixth and seventh tries through replacement prop James Cronin and hit 50 points.
The emphatic win keeps Munster in the race for a top two spot, with fellow high flyers Leinster also picking up a win over Cardiff Blues.
The scorers:
For Zebre:
Tries: Minnie, Greef
Cons: Violi, Bordoli
Yellow Cards: Marcello Violi, Oliviero Fabiani
For Munster:
Tries: N Scanell, O’Donnell, R O’Mahony 2, R Scannell, Cronin 2
Cons: Bleyendaal 4, R Scannell
Pens: Bleyendaal
Zebre: 15 Dion Berryman, 14 Kayle Van Zyl,13 Tommaso Boni, 12 Tommaso Castello, 11 Lloyd Greeff, 10 Serafin Bordoli, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Derick Minnie, 7 Johan Meyer, 6 Maxime Mbandà, 5 Valerio Bernabò (c), 4 Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 Bartholomeus Le Roux, 2 Oliviero Fabiani, 1 Bruno Postiglioni
Replacements: 16 Sydney Tobias, 17 Andrea De Marchi, 18 Guillermo Roan, 19 Joshua Furno, 20 Federico Ruzza, 21 Carlo Engelbrecht, 22 Matteo Pratichetti, 23 Guglielmo Palazzani
Munster: 15 Andrew Conway, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Ronan O’Mahony, 10 Tyler Bleyendaal, 9 Duncan Williams, 8 Jack O’Donoghue, 7 Tommy O’Donnell, 6 Peter O’Mahony (c), 5 Billy Holland, 4 Dave O’Callaghan, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements: 16 Rhys Marshall, 17 James Cronin, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Darren O’Shea, 20 Conor Oliver, 21 Angus Lloyd, 22 David Johnston, 23 Dan Goggin
Referee: Sean Gallagher (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Correll (Ireland), Elia Rizzo (Italy)
Leinster 22-21 Cardiff Blues
RDS Arena
Leinster edged out Cardiff Blues in a wonderful game at the RDS Arena to maintain top spot in the PRO12.
It was the hosts who opened the scoring Wonderful hands from Dan Leavy to gather a kick through and power over after four minutes, Ross Byrne converting from out wide to give Leinster an early seven-point lead.
Cardiff hit back quickly with a try of their own from Tomos Williams. A lovely break from Blaine Scully was finished off under the posts by the scrum half, with Steven Shingler’s conversion levelling the scores.
With both sides looking good on attack, the next 20 minutes passed without much incident. Eventually it was the hosts who struck next, scrum-half Luke McGrath sniping around a ruck to dot down.
Despite being put through the wringer by Leinster, the Blues managed to keep the deficit to a single score going into half time.
Leinster had a try chalked off early in the second half, and the Blues were quick to respond with Williams crossing for his second try of the afternoon after a lovely counter attack from the visitors.
The home side took the lead for a third time with a penalty from Byrne, but again Cardiff responded in kind. Another blistering counter attack from the Welsh side was finished emphatically by Sion Bennett.
Leinster scored their third try with 15 minutes to play. The Irish forwards rumbled over the line and after a TMO decision lock Ross Molony was credited with the score. Byrne was unable to convert meaning Leinster lead by a single point to set up a nervous final ten minutes.
The win keeps Leinster ahead of rivals Munster, with Ospreys set to kick off later this evening.
The scorers:
For Leinster:
Tries: Leavy, L McGrath, Ross Molony
Cons: R Byrne 2
Pen: R Byrne
For Cardiff:
Tries: T Williams 2, Bennett
Cons: Shingler 3
Leinster: 15 Joey Carbery, 14 Adam Byrne, 13 Rory O’Loughlin, 12 Noel Reid, 11 Isa Nacewa (c), 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Rhys Ruddock, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Dan Leavy, 5 Hayden Triggs, 4 Ross Molony, 3 Michael Bent, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 James Tracy, 17 Peter Dooley, 18 Mike Ross, 19 Mick Kearney, 20 Max Deegan, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Tom Daly, 23 Fergus McFadden
Cardiff Blues: 15 Matthew Morgan, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Rey Lee-Lo, 12 Steven Shingler, 11 Blaine Scully (c), 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Macauley Cook, 5 Jarrad Hoeata, 4 George Earle, 3 Anton Peikrishvili, 2 Kristian Dacey, 1 Corey Domachowski
Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Gethin Jenkins, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Sion Bennett, 20 Ellis Jenkins, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Willis Halaholo, 23 Tom James
Referee: George Clancy (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Matteo Liperini (Italy), Richard Kerr (Ireland)
TMO: Stefano Penné (FIR)
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