![\"Leinster's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ADDSF4S332KQXFPXRBYA45NFAU.jpg\")
Leinster’s Sam Prendergast on his way to scoring his side’s fifth try of the match. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\nURC quarter-final: Leinster 59 Lions 10<\/p>\n
A salve to the pain of losing the Champions Cup final. Leinster\u2019s season continues into next week and into a URC semi-final meeting with Stormers next Saturday back at the Aviva Stadium (5.30pm).<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s South African opposition, the Lions, were outgunned in the manner Leinster were beaten themselves by Bordeaux last week in Bilbao and so the opportunity to go back-to-back as URC champions is still there for Leo Cullen\u2019s squad, although Joe McCarthy did limp out of the action and may be a doubt for the last four fixture.<\/p>\n
Predictably, on a night when only 9,493 were in attendance for the province\u2019s latest knock-out occasion, it was James Lowe who found himself in the spotlight following reports on Friday night that he is now expected to leave at the season\u2019s conclusion due to a lack of agreement over a new deal.<\/p>\n
It took the 33-year-old until 11 minutes from the end to get on the scoreboard but, in doing so, he leapfrogged Shane Horgan as the province\u2019s top try scorer with 70. <\/p>\n
Lowe even capped his display with a second right at the death to make it 71 and \u2018one more year\u2019 was the cry from the crowd after both tries. <\/p>\n
Leinster racked up nine in total in what was an easier than expected run-out.<\/p>\n
On paper, this appeared to be a potential banana-skin for the province, given the trauma of last weekend. <\/p>\n
Unlike last year, when they lost in the semi-finals in Europe but had a couple of regular URC fixtures plus a down week to recover, Leinster were straight into the knock-out stages of the championship and had only a matter of days to get through what Cullen described on Thursday as a grieving process.<\/p>\n
Leinster’s Sam Prendergast on his way to scoring his side’s fifth try of the match. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n
The Lions had remained in Ireland after their back-to-back defeats to Leinster and Munster early last month and so had a couple of weeks to build up to their first ever quarter-final appearance in the competition.<\/p>\n
In reality, a sense of jeopardy never materialised for the champions. Leinster enjoyed themselves in the sunny evening conditions and could have scored more than their haul of nine tries.<\/p>\n
To counter the Lions\u2019 freshness, Cullen made eight changes to the starting line-up from Bilbao, and six changes to the matchday squad selected for the final.<\/p>\n
Sam Prendergast got the nod to start despite being omitted last week \u2013 and despite Ciar\u00e1n Frawley\u2019s standout performance off the bench in the final \u2013 and the 23-year-old played well in a dominant Leinster backline display.<\/p>\n
With Thomas Clarkson a late replacement for Tadhg Furlong, and after a scrappy start, it was all Leinster for the opening period. With just over a quarter of an hour on the clock, they had two converted tries on the board.<\/p>\n
It could have been even better for the hosts had Lions fullback Quan Horn not held up Jimmy O\u2019Brien after a scintillating backline move involving Prendergast, Lowe and Rieko Ioane.<\/p>\n
Either side of that chance, though, Leinster\u2019s backline produced the goods to put Dan Sheehan into acres of space to score. For the second try, Ioane fed Prendergast, whose dummy caused fatal hesitation in the Lions defence and Hugo Keenan cruised through to score. <\/p>\n
Prendergast converted both tries, but they failed to put more distance between the sides and that invited a response. The visitors provided it five minutes from the break.<\/p>\n
![\"Leinster's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/OQI24LNSJFWGU7BQ736S36GRLY.jpg\")
Leinster’s Joe McCarthy fends off Lions’ Henco Van Wyk. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n
Clarkson\u2019s yellow card for lifting scrumhalf Nico Steyn above the horizontal in the tackle opened the door and, while the Lions\u2019 lineout maul was repelled five metres out, centre Henco van Wyk found a gap to score.<\/p>\n
However, Leinster\u2019s response was instant and deadly as, from the restart, they made quick progress into Lions territory. A Joe McCarthy charge did the damage and his secondrow partner James Ryan finished an excellent move. Prendergast\u2019s conversion made it 21-5 at the break.<\/p>\n
Scott Penny added a fourth in the corner in the 44th minute after Caelan Doris broke through the Lions\u2019 defensive wall before Clarkson\u2019s return to action.<\/p>\n
Soon after, Prendergast sprinted 70 metres to score after Max Deegan\u2019s tackle on Smith gifted the No 10 an interception and it was just a matter from there of how many more Leinster would tack on in a second half that had all the intensity of a training run-out.<\/p>\n
It was the Lions, in fact, who scored next through Van Wyk, although he did appear to lose control as he attempted to touch down.<\/p>\n
Try-scorer O\u2019Brien then apologised to Lowe for not providing him with an easy pass to overtake Horgan, but the Kiwi then took centre stage with two superb finishes to wrap up a satisfactory night.<\/p>\n
SCORING SEQUENCE \u2013 10 mins: Sheehan try, Prendergast con 7-0; 15: Keenan try, Prendergast con 14-0; 36: Van Wyk try 14-5; 40: Ryan try, Prendergast con, 21-5; (half-time: 21-5); 44: Penny try 26-5; 46: Prendergast try, con 33-5; 55: G McCarthy try, Prendergast con, 40-5; 57: Van Wyk try 40-10; 65: O\u2019Brien try, Prendergast con, 47-10; 68: Lowe try, Prendergast con 54-10; 81: Lowe try, 59-10.<\/p>\n
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O\u2019Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Luke McGrath; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Max Deegan, Scott Penny, Caelan Doris. <\/p>\n
Replacements: Josh van der Flier for Doris (52 mins); Gus McCarthy for Sheehan (53); Diarmuid Mangan for Ryan (55); Alex Usanov for Porter, Rabah Slimani for Clarkson (both 56); Jamison Gibson-Park for McGrath, Harry Byrne for Keenan (both 62); Robbie Henshaw for J McCarthy (66).<\/p>\n
Yellow card: Clarkson (35 mins).<\/p>\n
LIONS: Quan Horn; Angelo Davids, Henco van Wyk, Richard Kriel, Erich Cronje; Chris Smith, Nico Steyn; SJ Kotze, PJ Botha, Sebastian Lombard; Reinhard Nothnagel, Darrien Landsberg; Siba Mahashe, Batho Hlekani, Francke Horn.<\/p>\n
Replacements: RF Schoeman for Lombard (46 mins); Eddie Davids for Kotze, Franco Marais for Botha, Siba Qoma for Landsberg (all 53); Haashim Pead for Steyn (54); Rynhardt Jonker for Wyk, Ruan Delport for Hlekani (both 58); JC Pretorious for Horn (62).<\/p>\n
Yellow cards: Horn (53 minutes).<\/p>\n
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU).<\/p>\n
URC semi-finals<\/p>\n
Saturday, June 6th<\/p>\n
Glasgow Warriors v Bulls, Murrayfield, 2.30pm<\/p>\n
Leinster v Stormers, Aviva Stadium, 5.30pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"URC quarter-final: Leinster 59 Lions 10 A salve to the pain of losing the Champions Cup final. Leinster\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,11287,112,14881],"class_list":["post-475781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475781","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=475781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}