Leinster 26 Connacht 18:Two late tries in the space of three minutes helped Leinster shake off a dogged Connacht side in tonight's Magners League clash at the RDS. Former Leinster player Ian Keatley had slotted over six penalties from eight attempts to give Connacht an 18-14 lead with 16 minutes left on the clock.
Rob Kearney then displayed all his strength to barge his way over from five metres out in the 68th minute to edge Leinster into the lead.
They pushed further ahead three minutes later when Luke Fitzgerald got in under the posts, albeit from a final pass that looked forward.
Leinster had got off to a blistering start when Trevor Hogan got over for a try in the fourth minute after fine breaks from Isa Nacewa and Felipe Contepomi, who failed with the conversion.
That set the home crowd alight, but the rest of the half was to prove frustrating as poor discipline allowed Keatley to show his accuracy, kicking four penalties to put his side 12-11 ahead.
Contepomi gave Leinster the half-time lead with his third penalty, but Keatley added two more after the interval to put Connacht 18-14 up as they went in search of a second straight derby win and the double over Leinster .
It was to prove beyond them thanks to Leinster's late try-scoring blitz, but it was far from the polished performance that coach Michael Cheika was looking for.
The win moves Leinster up to third position in the table, two points behind Munster, but Cheika believes his side missed their chance to claim the bonus point late on.
"Obviously, it is good to win the game but I'm disappointed to miss two opportunities to get the bonus point," said Cheika.
"Really we should have finished that off. I'm happy we held our nerve because we didn't down in Galway," he added.
LEINSTER:R Kearney; G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald, F Contepomi, Simon Keogh; I Nacewa, C Whitaker (capt); R McCormack, J Fogarty, S Wright, T Hogan, C Jowitt, R Elsom, S Jennings, Stephen Keogh. Replacements:M O'Kelly for T Hogan (49), C Healy for R McCormack (50), R McCormack for Stephen Keogh (53-61, temp), S O'Brien for Stephen Keogh (61), S Horgan for R Kearney (69), C Keane for C Whitaker (75).
CONNACHT:F Carr; T Nathan, N Ta'auso, M Deane, L Bibo; I Keatley, F Murphy; J Lyne, A Flavin, R Morris, M Swift, A Farley, M McCarthy, J Muldoon (capt), C Rigney. Replacements:R Loughney for M Swift (34-40, temp), R Loughney for J Lyne (54), S Cronin for A Flavin (63), D Gannon for M McCarthy (65).
