A try from Denis Hickie with just minutes remaining gave Leinster a 23-20 win over Montferrand in France in Pool Four of the Heineken European Cup today. French international Gerald Merceron struck four first-half penalties to give his side a 12-9 lead at the break, with three penalties from Brian O'Meara keeping Leinster in touch.
The second-half was a different proposition, however, as Matt Williams' side sought their first victory on French soil, with tries from Gordan D'Arcy and Hickie seeing Leinster hold out for an unlikely three-point victory. Raphaël Chanal went over early in the second-half to give the hosts a 20-16 lead with the final whistle in sight, but Hickie struck in the dying minutes to give Leinster a valuable victory.
Leinster trailed for almost the entire game before replacement outside-half Nathan Spooner darted down the blindside and delivered a pass to give Hickie the space to score in the corner. The home fans thought the pass was forward, but Welsh referee Paul Adams awarded the crucial five-pointer. Scrum-half O'Meara made up for two earlier misses with a fine conversion from out wide and Leinster held firm in injury-time to take the crucial two points.
Montferrand had all the possession and territory in the opening half-hour, but failed to break Leinster's resilient defence. The home side had to be content with regular penalty goals from Merceron, with Leinster keeping in touch through the boot of O'Meara in their infrequent forays into the opposition half. In fact, they made only three serious attacks and all were rewarded with an O'Meara penalty goal.
Leinster were struggling with their kicking game, with full-back Girvan Dempsey's touch-finding radar clearly misfiring. By comparison, Merceron had the ball on a string and he was frustrated by his team-mates' inability to convert pressure into tries. Merceron made sure Montferrand led 12-9 at the break, but it should have been by a bigger margin.
The French side attacked from the restart and were finally rewarded in the 45th minute after a break from captain Olivier Magne. The ball was sent wide and a clever flick from backrower Marc Reynaud gave impressive winger Chanal time to bulldoze his way over the corner. O'Meara missed simple shots at goal in the 50th and 64th minutes, but in between, winger D'Arcy scored in the corner after Shane Horgan surged through the middle and linked with O'Meara, who passed to give D'Arcy the space to score.
Opponent David Bory seemed to knee D'Arcy in the back after the Irish international scored but was given only a talking to by referee Adams as D'Arcy was stretchered off. Merceron kept his side in front with a fifth penalty goal before Hickie's try had the crowd on its feet for all the wrong reasons as Leinster stole an unlikely win at the home of the French giants.
Filed by Shane Murray
