Too little, too late for Leinster as Scarlets have too much

Scarlets 38 Leinster 29

Leinster opened the door for provincial rivals Munster to snatch top spot in the Guinness Pro12 after Leo Cullen's nightmare became a reality in west Wales.

The league leaders were left shell shocked after an Jonny McNicholl’s early try paved the way for a 38-29 defeat to the Scarlets.

Werner Kruger and Steffan Evans completed a first-half blitz for the hosts before Richardt Strauss breathed hope into the visitors.

But Barry Daly’s dangerous hit on an airborne Scarlets full-back Aled Thomas earned him a red-card, and allowed the hosts to go further ahead through Will Boyde and Ryan Elias.

The 14-men rallied to get within touching distance of a losing bonus-point thanks to Adam Byrne and Tom Daly, but it was too little, too late.

Leinster were out to put daylight between themselves and provincial rivals Munster, who are expected to trounce Benetton Treviso on Saturday.

And despite dominating possession in the early exchanges, Cullen’s men found themselves seven points down.

Hooker Strauss popped up out-wide but fumbled the ball into the grateful hands of Scarlets’ Canterbury import Jonny McNicholl, who ran-in unopposed for a debut try.

The Ireland front-rower had the chance to atone for his error two minutes later but he spilled the ball again after the impressive Dan Leavy’s offload looked to have put him in.

A spate of penalties allowed the West Walians a foothold in Leinster territory, before referee Sean Gallagher lost his patience.

Second-row Mike McCarthy was shown yellow after 22 minutes when he dragged a try-line bound maul down to the ground.

And the league leaders were made to pay as the Scarlets shunted tighthead prop Werner Kruger over the whitewash from the resulting lineout.

Rhys Patchell landed the conversion from out-wide, before Leinster finally got on the scoreboard with a Isa Nacewa penalty.

But the game looked to have been won for the Scarlets before half-time. In-form wing Evans crashed over from close range with McCarthy still in the sin-bin to put Wayne Pivac’s men 21-3 up.

However, Leinster were offered a lifeline when Strauss managed to hold on to the ball.

Noel Reid broke downfield and found Adam Byrne in support, and the flying wing offloaded out of the tackle to Strauss, who dotted down to make it 21-8 at half-time.

The nightmare became a reality for Cullen less than a minute after the restart when Daly was shown a red card for blatantly and recklessly taking opposing full-back Aled Thomas out in the air.

Much like the first period, it only took the Scarlets two minutes to punish Leinster’s indiscipline and bag the bonus-point.

Much like the first period, it only took the Scarlets two minutes to punish Leinster’s indiscipline and bag the bonus-point.

Evans sliced through and found Thomas, who used quick hands to put no.8 Will Boyde over at the corner, before Ryan Elias

But the 14-men of Leinster finally rallied from 35-8 down to get themselves back in the hunt for a losing bonus-point.

First Byrne sliced through to score at the posts for what seemed to be a consolation, before a moment of magic from Ross Byrne got Leinster back to within 13 points.

The outside-half sent a delicate grubber kick behind the Scarlets defence, and Daly dived in to get the Parc y Scarlets crowd sweating at 35-22 in the final quarter.

Dan Jones notched a late penalty but Porter's score bagged a last ditch bonus-point.

Scorers - Scarlets: McNicholl, Kruger, Evans, Boyd, Elias tries; cons Patchell (4); pens D Jones. Leinster: Strauss, Byrne, Daly, Porter. tries; cons; Nacewa (3) pens; Nacewa.

Scarlets: A Thomas (G Owen 56); J McNicholl, S Hughes, H Parkes (capt), S Evans; R Patchell (D Jones 65), J Evans (A Davies 56); W Jones (D Evans 56), R Elias (E Phllips 53), W Kruger (P Edwards 55), T Price (T Beirne 56), D Bulbring (J Macleod 54), A Shingler, J Davies, W Boyde.

Leinster: I Nacewa; A Byrne, R O'Loughlin (T Daly 55), N Reid, B Daly; R Byrne, J Gibson-Park (L McGrath 46); P Dooley (A Porter 55), R Strauss (J Tracey 46), M Bent (O Heffernan 63), M McCarthy (R Moloney 55), I Nagle, D Ryan, D Leavy (P Timmins 52), J Conan (Z Kirchner 46).

Referee: S Gallagher (Ireland)