{"id":321113,"date":"2026-02-28T02:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321113\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T02:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:58:09","slug":"leinster-take-narrow-defeat-against-cardiff-after-leaving-comeback-too-late-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321113\/","title":{"rendered":"Leinster take narrow defeat against Cardiff after leaving comeback too late \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

URC: Cardiff 8 Leinster 7<\/p>\n

Harry Byrne\u2019s first taste of action in over a month lasted only three minutes as Leinster<\/a>\u2019s 11-match unbeaten run ended at the Cardiff Arms Park and, with it, the chance to reach the URC<\/a> summit.<\/p>\n

Released from the Ireland squad having not featuring in the opening three rounds of the Six Nations<\/a>, 26-year-old Byrne slipped off a tackle with the game still in its infancy.<\/p>\n

He took a knock to the face in the process and didn\u2019t return from a head injury assessment, making the outhalf a major doubt for Ireland<\/a>\u2019s encounter with Wales on Friday. Charlie Tector replaced him off the bench.<\/p>\n

Robbie Henshaw and Jimmy O\u2019Brien, who made their comebacks from injury, could now come back into frame for Andy Farrell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, for Leo Cullen<\/a> and Jacques Nienaber there was disappointment as the arrival of Leinster\u2019s mini-bomb squad before the break failed to change the course of the game, with Cardiff handling the difficult conditions better.<\/p>\n

It was cold and wet in the Welsh capital, but emotions ran hot in the first minute when Leinster novice Alan Spicer and George Nott clashed off the ball. <\/p>\n

Max Deegan, Leinster\u2019s captain on the occasion of his 150th cap, was penalised by referee Sam Grove-White for being the next man in as a melee developed.<\/p>\n

The conditions made the contest a lottery. Players on both sides struggled to hold on to possession, forcing a series of scrums and stoppages that killed any sense of momentum.<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Fintan Gunne is tackled by Cardiff’s Taine Basham. Photograph: Andrew Dowling\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Cardiff led 3-0 at the break after Callum Sheedy slotted a close-range penalty.<\/p>\n

For the most part it was chaotic stuff, signposted by Cam Winnett\u2019s early kick-through that Ruben Moloney failed to gather. Leinster scrambled to survive, as they did on a couple of other occasions.<\/p>\n

Byrne\u2019s exit presented Tector with another chance in the pivot role, but he was instantly under pressure when he had a clearance blocked down. Worse, he was sent to the sinbin in the 13th minute for a late, no-arms tackle on Ben Thomas. <\/p>\n

The 23-year-old, who had his first start at 10 in Leinster\u2019s last outing against Edinburgh, returned to play after a bunker review.<\/p>\n

At that point, the visitors were behind on the scoreboard when O\u2019Brien knocked on and Thomas kicked through as Tector arrived, his act of foul play earning him the yellow card.<\/p>\n

The home side turned the screw, with Sheedy\u2019s superb 50-22 forcing Leinster on the back foot and, with James Culhane going off his feet at the ruck, the Cardiff outhalf made no mistake off the tee in the 19th minute.<\/p>\n

Leinster\u2019s best move of the half came when they were reduced to 14 men. Reiko Ioane\u2019s charge up the middle and inside pass to Scott Penny opened a gap, the visitors shifted it wide via O\u2019Brien and Moloney just ran out of space.<\/p>\n

The hosts turned down another facile three-pointer 15 minutes from the break after Leinster were offside defending inside their 22. But the gamble failed to pay off as Dan Thomas knocked on at the ruck.<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Ruben Moloney is tackled by Cardiff’s Callum Sheedy. Photograph: Andrew Dowling\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Cullen changed out his frontrow and half of the engine room in the 37th minute, with Rabah Slimani and RG Snyman coming on to add beef at scrum-time and experience around the pitch, but Cardiff struck the fatal blow 14 minutes into the second half.<\/p>\n

Leinster cleared their lines into the opposition half but the counter was devastating. Winnett gathered possession, stepped Tector, and fed Grady on the left flank.<\/p>\n

The winger took off before passing inside to Thomas, who fed scrumhalf Aled Davies for the game\u2019s opening try. Sheedy missed the conversion attempt but, crucially, Cardiff had a two-score lead.<\/p>\n

Leinster lost Joshua Kenny to injury soon after but were presented with a way back into the game on 66 minutes when Jacob Beetham reached one-handed for a 15-metre pass by Snyman to Moloney, and was pinged for a deliberate knock-on. <\/p>\n

The Cardiff winger was sinbinned and the visitors were back in business just two minutes later when Henshaw\u2019s inside pass released Kenny\u2019s replacement Andrew Osborne and his assist sent newly-arrived Luke McGrath under the posts.<\/p>\n

Tector converted and, with over 10 minutes to play, it was a one-point game. However, that was as good as it got for the province, who couldn\u2019t find a winning score.<\/p>\n

Cardiff dug in well to control the closing stages, with the victory moving them up to third in the URC table on 40 points, one point off Leinster.<\/p>\n

SCORING SEQUENCE \u2013 19 MINS: Sheedy pen 3-0; Half-time 3-0; 54: Davies try 8-0; 68: McGrath try, Tector con 8-7<\/p>\n

CARDIFF: C Winnett; J Beetham, H Millard, B Thomas, M Grady; C Sheedy, A Davies; R Barratt, L Belcher, J Sebastian; J McNally, G Nott; A Lawrence, D Thomas, T Basham. Replacements: D Southworth for Barratt (57 mins), K Assiratti for Sebastian, D Hughes for Belcher (both 62), J Mulder for Davies (66), R Thornton for Nott (69), I Lloyd for Sheedy (72).<\/p>\n

Yellow card: Beetham (66 mins).<\/p>\n

LEINSTER: J O\u2019Brien; JJ Kenny, R Ioane, R Henshaw, R Moloney; H Byrne, F Gunne; J Cahir, J McKee, A Sparrow; A Spicer, B Deeny; M Deegan, S Penny, J Culhane. Replacements: C Tector for Byrne (4 mins), A Usanov for Cahir, R Slimani for Sparrowm, RG snyman for Spicer (all 37), G McCarthy for McKee (37-75), L McGrath for Gunne (52), A Osborne for Kenny (57).<\/p>\n

Yellow card: Tector (13 mins).<\/p>\n

Referee: S Grove-White (SRU).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"URC: Cardiff 8 Leinster 7 Harry Byrne\u2019s first taste of action in over a month lasted only three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,11287,43,40,38,41,39,14881],"class_list":{"0":"post-321113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-leinster-rugby","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories","15":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}