The Leinster Under-20 team, sponsored by SWORD Security, had to survive two late scares to take a nail-biting 19-18 victory away from Munster in Friday night’s second game of the interprovincial series at Thomond Park…
It was one Munster will know they should have won as they missed a late penalty and had the conversion of their injury-time try come back off the post.
Having said that, Leinster had to cope with the loss through injury of their number eight Peader Timmins and centre Adam Byrne in the second and 25th minutes, respectively.
The hero of the hour was wing Cian Kelleher, whose tries in the 21st and 45th minutes put Leinster in the driving seat and a third from centre Gary Ringrose, converted by fly-half Ross Byrne make it 19-6 in the 52nd minute.
This was before Munster launched a two-try assault that could have produced a home win.
“It was a typical Munster-Leinster derby clash. We lost two very important players in the first 25 minutes and we are very proud of how the lads dealt with it,” said Team Manager Eddie Geraghty.
LEINSTER UNDER-20:
15: Billy Dardis (UCD)
14: Cian Kelleher (Lansdowne)
13: Adam Byrne (UCD) / Stephen O’Neill (Terenure College RFC) 25 mins
12: Gary Ringrose (Blackrock College)
11: Ian Fitzpatrick (Lansdowne)
10: Ross Byrne (UCD) / Conor McKeon (Lansdowne) 62 mins
9: Nick McCarthy (St. Michael’s College)
1: Ivan Soroka (Belvedere College SJ) / Denis Coulson (Lansdowne) 72 mins
2: Dylan Donnellan (UCD) / Shane Delahunt (Lansdowne) 54 mins
3: Oisin Heffernan (Lansdowne) / Craig Trenier (Terenure College RFC) 67 mins
4: Ross Molony (UCD) CAPTAIN
5: Stephen Gardiner (Lansdowne)
6: Josh Murphy (UCD)
7: Michael Triggs (Lansdowne) / Stephen Keelan (Clongowes Wood College SJ) 76 mins
8: Peader Timmins (UCD) / Sean Coughlan (Blackrock College) 2 mins
