Heineken Cup round-up: Cheika's Leinster fulfil their brief and beat Brive
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Leinster, the Heineken Cup holders who lost at home to London Irish last week, won 36-13 in Brive yesterday. The back-row replacement Kevin McLaughlin scored two tries, late on, after the Ireland and Lions full-back Rob Kearney had scored the first. Jonny Sexton kicked 19 points. The England fly-half Andy Goode kicked two penalties for a Brive side rather light on actual Frenchmen – three started the match, with four on the bench – and converted a try by the South African flanker Gerhard Vosloo.
Leinster's coach, Michael Cheika, said: "I think hard work got us the game. There wasn't anything flashy or fancy. We backed ourselves a lot to throw the ball around when there were opportunities there. We didn't go into our shell, which we could have done because we knew what the implications were if we didn't win. That's good character."
Leinster's captain, Brian O'Driscoll, said: "We could have picked up a bonus point but we're delighted to come to Brive and get four points. It's a hugely difficult competition to win. Having lost in the first round we put pressure on ourselves, but we're delighted to come out of here with a win."
Back in Ireland the 2008 champions, Munster, got their first win of this season's tournament, 41-10 against Benetton Treviso at Thomond Park. The Italian team, who beat the French champions, Perpignan, in the first round, led 10-0 early on against an out-of-sorts Munster and caused problems, particularly up front, throughout the match.
However, two tries from Ian Dowling, who replaced the injured Doug Howlett, and tries from Paul Warwick, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Denis Fogarty and Jean de Villiers gave Munster a bonus-point win that put them on top of Pool One, thanks to the losing point they picked up at Northampton last week. Ronan O'Gara kicked three conversions; the Australian Brendan Williams and the England Sevens specialist Andy Vilk scored tries for a typically cosmopolitan Treviso.
In Italy, in Pool Four of the Amlin Challenge Cup, Wasps beat Roma 57-0. Joe Ward, Charlie Beech, Tom Varndell, Eoghan Hickey and Paul Sackey – the England wing who was leading his club for the first time – scored a try each and Dan Ward-Smith and Dan Leo both scored two. Hickey kicked six conversions.
In Spain, Worcester won their Pool Two match against Olympus Madrid, 38-5. Alex Grove and Miles Benjamin scored two tries each and Jonny Arr one and George Crook kicked five conversions and a penalty. Matias Tudela scored the Spaniards' try.
In Pool Three, in Italy, Rovigo lost 76-11 to Castres. In Pool One, in Romania, Bucuresti pushed Bourgoin before losing 21-19.
Today's Heineken Cup games are Bath against Stade Français at the Rec and the Ospreys against Clermont Auvergne at the Liberty Stadium, the latter a match that will have a bearing on Leicester's fortunes in Pool Three. In the Amlin Challenge Cup, Leeds are at home to Overmach Parma in Pool One and Newcastle host Albi in Pool Five.
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