We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
THIS WASN’T THE turkey shoot that many of those in attendance at the RDS would have predicted but after coming through an early scare, Leinster coasted to a bonus-point win against Sale Sharks as Leo Cullen’s side made it two wins from two in the Champions Cup.
With Sale sending over a weakened side, a strong Leinster selection looked primed to deliver a dominant performance on home soil but found life tricky for the opening 40 minutes.
After a tight and often disjointed first-half it was Sale who were ahead at the interval, the visitors building a 13-11 lead thanks to a converted Connor Doherty try and two penalties from the boot of Robert du Preez.
Yet an impressive second-half display saw last year’s beaten finalists build on last weekend’s win away to La Rochelle, their five tries on the night coming courtesy of Josh Van der Flier, Jamison Gibson-Park, Robbie Henshaw, Ryan Baird and Cian Healy – with four of those arriving in the second period.
Leinster had plenty of chances to take control of the game in the first half but didn’t register their first try until the final act of the opening period, Van der Flier getting over in the corner after a sustained period of Leinster pressure.
It was a welcome score for the hosts after a mixed start, Sale bringing plenty of fight and invention and troubling a Leinster side who at times struggled to settle into their attacking game.
Sale’s first points arrived with just three minutes played, Robert Du Preez kicking a straight-forward three after Robbie Henshaw was yellow-carded for cynical play as Telusa Veainu found himself yards from the tryline.
Yet 14-man Leinster dominated the next 10 minutes, twice getting over line but twice seeing the TMO intervene.
On 10 minutes Van der Flier looked to have scored the game’s opening try, but the replays showed Baird had knocked the ball on as he carried into contact in the build-up.
Baird himself then got over after a big Leinster win at the scrum, but was held-up after Sale did well to get numbers around the back-rower.
By the time Frawley was offered a shot at the posts on 15 minutes, a frustrated Leinster were happy to take the three points and level the game.
Sale instantly replied through another Du Preez penalty.
Leinster then saw another chance go begging when Dan Sheehan followed up a penalty win with a crooked throw at the lineout. A big shove at the scrum was heartily celebrated by Sale and from there they kicked into gear, a smart grubber from Raffi Quirke sending Du Preez racing forward. With the out-half haring towards the line, he found Connor Doherty on his shoulder and the centre dived under the posts to finish a fine team move. Du Preez converted and Sale led by 10.
Another Frawley penalty cut three off Sale’s lead but Leinster were soon under pressure again, James Ryan and Jamison Gibson-Park combining well to stop Tom Roebuck adding Sale’s second.
Yet Leinster always looked dangerous when their attack round some rhythm and on the stroke of half-time, as Sale lost James Harper to a yellow card, they finally crossed for their first try.
After some excellent play by Frawley, Sheehan made a big carry to bring the home side into the 22 before the ball was recycled to the opposite wing. Baird looked in a position to attack the line but found Larmour inside, who was cut down with a high tackle.
Leinster went to the corner, and from the lineout Van der Flier powered over. Frawley couldn’t add the extras from a tough angle, and for the first time since the 2020 quarter-final against Saracens, Leinster were behind at half-time in a Champions Cup game.
Two minutes after the restart, they finally took the lead.
Moving into the Sale half, Gibson-Park fired a lovely pass wide to Van der Flier, who stepped inside and advanced with purpose before finding his scrum-half, who had run a lovely support line and had the pace to get over in the corner. A mixed night for Frawley continued as the out-half missed from tee again.
Now it was Sale who looked the more frustrated of the two, with substitute Jonny Hill giving away a needless penalty following a tussle with Van der Flier off the ball.
Leinster were building momentum as Sale struggled to get out of their half.
The home side’s third try arrived in the 56th minute, Henshaw going in under the posts after another powerful carry from Sheehan off the back of the maul. This time, Frawley added the conversion and from there, Leinster never looked back.
The inevitable bonus-point try soon followed, Baird applying the finishing touch after Hugo Keenan went close. Frawley’s second conversion pushed Cullen’s charges 17 points clear.
With the win wrapped up, Cullen was able to replace Frawley with 20-year-old Sam Prendergast for the final 15 minutes.
And it was another replacement who added their fifth, Cian Healy muscling over after more good work from the Leinster pack.
That looked to be that before an eventful end game saw Hugo Keenan yellow-carded for a check on Arron Reed, before Tommy Taylor added Sale’s second try of the contest.
That was instantly followed by their third, Tom Curtis charging over to finish a smart breakaway try. It came with Leinster down to 13 men after Charlie Ngatai was forced off with an injury.
By that point a fair chunk of the sold-out crowd had already made their way to their nearby bars for a Christmas pint, their team longing having put this contest to bed.
Leinster now head into the Christmas break top of pool four with nine points from their opening two games – second-place Leicester face Stade Francais tomorrow – with a St Stephen’s Day interpro trip to Munster next in the diary.
Leinster scorers:
Tries – Van der Flier, Gibson-Park, Henshaw, Baird, Healy
Penalties – Frawley [2/2]
Conversions – Frawley [2/4], Prendergast [1/1]
Sale scorers:
Tries – Doherty, Taylor, Curtis
Penalties – Du Preez [2/2]
Conversions – Du Preez [3/3]
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jordan Larmour (Charlie Ngatai, 56), Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Jimmy O’Brien; Ciaran Frawley (Sam Prendergast, 66), Jamison Gibson-Park (Ben Murphy, 70); Andrew Porter Cian Healy, 64), Dan Sheehan (Ronan Kelleher, 60), Thomas Clarkson (Michael Ala’alatoa, 46); Jason Jenkins (Joe McCarthy, 39), James Ryan; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (Jack Conan, 66).
Yellow card: Henshaw 3, Keenan 78
SALE SHARKS: Telusa Veainu (Joe Carpenter, 59); Tom Roebuck, Connor Doherty (Tom Curtis 60), Sam Bedlow, Arron Reed; Robert du Preez, Raffi Quirke (Nye Thomas,, 66); Ross Harrison (Tumy Onasanya, 59), Tommy Taylor, James Harper (Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 48); Ben Bamber, Josh Beaumont (Jonny Hill, 51); Ernst van Rhyn (Josh Beaumont, 59) (Ethan Caine, 68), Sam Dugdale, Rouban Birch (Jean-Luc du Preez, 49).
Yellow card: James Harper 38
Referee: Pierre Brousset
Attendance: 18,600
Written by Ciarán Kennedy and posted on the42.ie
The Journal publishes the biggest breaking news in Irish and international sport but for all of The 42′s insightful analysis and sharp sportswriting, subscribe here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say