Leinster make light work of the Sharks

The Sharks found themselves tossed straight into a sizzling hot frying pan at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night, and were terribly slow to react as they succumbed to a 31-5 defeat at the hands of United Rugby Championship (URC) defending champions Leinster.

Leinster, coming off two defeats in South Africa against the Stormers and Bulls and lying 15th in the standings with just one point, came out cooking on gas from the outset.

The high tempo and accuracy of their play immediately had the Sharks under pressure, and they were quick to probe the space out wide.

A sluggish visiting team managed to hold out until the 12th minute when the ever-dangerous wing James Lowe was put in space, drew a couple of defenders and then grubbered infield, fullback Jamie Osborne beating the last defender to the ball and going over for the opening try.

The aerial battle was another area where Leinster were just that much sharper and, in the 23rd minute, the Sharks conceded a penalty after another hoist by the home side, leading to a lineout and then a five-metre scrum.

A lovely inside ball from flyhalf Harry Byrne to Jimmy O’Brien saw the right wing knifing through for the second try.

Four minutes later Leinster scored again as loosehead prop Paddy McCarthy won a turnover penalty and then from a ruck in the middle of the 22, flank Josh van der Flier burst straight through a lacklustre defensive line for the third try.

Young Ethan Hooker, battle-hardened from the fires of international combat in the Rugby Championship, put the Sharks on the board with a 31st-minute intercept try, brilliantly reading Leinster’s desire to get the ball out wide and leaping one-handed to snaffle a long pass.

He still had a couple of defenders to beat, but turned on the afterburners to race away.

The Sharks were down 5-21 at halftime and the most telling statistic from the first 40 minutes was the penalty count.

The KwaZulu-Natalians had conceded seven and Leinster not one.

To the Sharks’ credit, they did produce a much better second half, albeit with some more soft penalties conceded, but it was not ever going to save them from defeat.

They did, however, start to gain dominance and reward at scrum time, culminating in a yellow card for replacement loosehead Jack Boyle, and their pack, boosted with the experience of Bongi Mbonambi and Vincent Koch, really started to stand up to a Leinster team packed with Irish internationals.

But the Sharks were not ever really able to create any sort of attacking threat and Leinster scored the only points of the second half through tries by eighthman Max Deegan and replacement hooker Gus McCarthy.

It was not all doom and gloom though for a Sharks team that was perpetually a yard off the pace, with loosehead prop Simphiwe Matanzima, Hooker and fullback Edwill van der Merwe certainly not complicit in the defeat.

Scorers

Leinster: Tries – Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O’Brien, Josh van der Flier, Max Deegan, Gus McCarthy. Conversions – Harry Byrne (3).

Sharks: Try: Ethan Hooker.