Irish powerhouse Leinster proved to be too strong, handing the Cell C Sharks, and South African teams their first loss in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship as they went down 54-34 at the RDS Arena in Dublin.
The Sharks kept pace until the last 20 minutes of the game, where Leinster’s superior finishing put them away and ensured a good victory for the Irish side as they look to re-establish their dominance in the competition.
It was a night where the Irish side scored way too easily at times, and the Sharks, trying to counter with physicality and counterpunching, kept pace for the first hour, but then made way too many mistakes to give themselves a chance to win.
While Sean Everitt’s side will take solace in the fact, they have a plethora of Boks coming back, they have some serious questions to answer on defence on a night when Leinster scored eight tries and at times made them look like training run tries.
While the Sharks disrupted the Irish side with their physicality and struck at crucial times in the first hour, they were let down whenever Leinster launched an assault on defence and it is an area that they will need to look at.
Aphelele Fassi, while one of the best attacking players in the competition, was shown up more than once on defence, and his exits were poor, but he was hardly the only player who was let down on occasion.
There were times when Leinster used the kick-pass to perfection, with Garry Ringrose, by far the man of the match, scoring one of his tries from it, and Leinster using it far too often for comfort for Sharks fans.
In the end the Sharks were let down by their own defensive performance and their inability to stop points being scored, even though they were decent on attack for large parts of the game and scored some exceptional tries in the process.
But as the game started, it proved just the point – Jason Jenkins – scored within two minutes to give the home side a well-deserved early lead.
The Sharks hit back when Fassi ran a beautiful straight line to beat the scrambling defence, but then the fullback failed his most basic task in tackling Ringrose, who a few minutes later bounced off his tackle to go all the way to score under the posts.
Thaakir Abrahams got his name on the board, but Ringrose rubbed out that score with a cross-kick finish that would make any coach proud.
Leinster started off the second half much better than the Sharks when Andrew Porter went over from close range, but Abrahams then scored possibly the try of the match by ducking under a tackle and chipping ahead, beating Ringrose to the goalline scramble to score a sensational try.
But then things went south for the Sharks as Robbie Henshaw, Robb Russell and Jonny Sexton touched down to take the game away from the Sharks.
Fassi scored his second late in the game, but it was too little too late as their last quarter demise cost them a chance to win the game.
Scorers
Leinster – Tries: Jason Jenkins, Garry Ringrose (2), Andrew Porter, Robbie Henshaw, Robb Russell, Jonny Sexon, John McKee. Conversions: Sexton (7).
Cell C Sharks – Tries:Aphelele Fassi (2), Werner Kok, Thaakir Abrahams (2). Conversions:Boeta Chamberlain (2), Nevaldo Fleurs. Penalty:Chamberlain.