| Benetton: (13) 25 |
| Tries: Negri, Faiva, Lucchessi Cons: Garbisi 2 Pens: Garbisi 2 |
| Leinster: (20) 37 |
| Tries: Tracy, Lowe, Conan, Ryan Cons: Byrne 3 Pens: Byrne 3 |
Champions Leinster dug deep to secure a bonus-point 37-25 win over a dogged Benetton side to continue their winning start to the Pro14 campaign.
James Ryan’a late try added gloss to the scoreline but the Irish province were made to work for their win.
James Tracy and James Lowe also crossed for Leinster while Jack Conan was awarded a penalty try.
Sebastian Negri, Hame Faiva and Gianmarco Lucchesi scored for Benetton, who missed out on a losing bonus point.
Having cruised to a comfortable bonus-point win over Dragons last week, Leo Cullen made six changes to a side missing injured trio Jonathan Sexton, Andrew Porter and Ronan Kelleher.
Robbie Henshaw, Ross Byrne, Will Connors, Caelan Doris, Ryan Baird and Tracy all drafted in for the three-in-a-row champions’ first game outside Dublin since February.
And it was Tracy who powered the Irish province into an early advantage with a 19th-minute try, establishing a 13-6 lead after Byrne and Paolo Garbisi had exchanged four early penalties.
Tracy, who was left out of the Ireland squad for the two remaining Six Nations rounds earlier this week, forced his way over the line after Leinster went to the maul from a line-out.
Byrne, who kicked 15 points for Leinster, made no mistake with his conversion.
In a stop-start opening period that lacked fluency, Benetton demonstrated their mettle.
The Italians, who produced a spirited performance in last week’s defeat by Ulster, hit back impressively when Sebastian Negri went over the line following a spell of sustained pressure from the hosts just after the half-hour mark.
Shaken but not intimidated by the home side, Leinster failed to quickly re-establish their lead when stand-in captain Garry Ringrose failed to apply the finish after Connors injected urgency into the away side’s attack with an offload to Conan.
But Leinster’s resilience eventually shone through when Lowe showed a sharp change of pace to break through a wall of Benetton bodies and secure the champions’ second try.
Just as they did against Ulster, however, Benetton showed dogged perseverance to make Leinster’s evening as uncomfortable as possible with Faiva touching down on 48 to reduce the arrears to just two before Garbisi missed the chance to level it up from the conversion.
Leinster eventually put some much-needed daylight between the sides when referee Ben Whitehouse awarded Conan a penalty try with the TMO initially ruling a knock-on.
Gianmarco Lucchesi crossed late on for Benetton but it proved in vain as Leinster clinched the bonus point thanks to Ryan’s try five minutes from time.
Leinster: Keenan; Larmour, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe; R Byrne, Gibson-Park; E Byrne, Tracy, Bent, Baird, Ryan; Doris, Connors, Conan.
Replacements: Cronin, Healy, Clarkson, Molony, Ruddock, McGrath, H Byrne, O’Brien.
Benetton: Hayward; Tavuyara, Morisi, Zanon, Ioane; Garbisi, Duvenage; Traore, Faivi, Pasquali, Herbst, Snyman; Negri, Steyn, Halafihi.
Replacements: Luchessi, Quaglio, Ferrari, Cannone, Ruzza, Pettinelli, Braley, Padovani.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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