Leinster will face Glasgow Warriors in this seasons Pro 14 final after claiming a 24-9 win over rivals Munster in their semi-final at the RDS on Saturday afternoon.
Tries from Sean Cronin and James Lowe helped the boys in blue to a much-needed win after last weekend’s demoralising Champions Cup final defeat to Saracens.
The win coupled with Glasgow’s 50-20 hammering of Ulster on Friday night means that it will be a Leinster and Glasgow final in Celtic Park next Saturday.
Leinster got off to the perfect start in their semi-final with Ross Byrne, who came in to replace Johnny Sexton, kicked a penalty within the opening two minutes to give Leinster a 3-0 lead.
However, Joey Carbery, making a return to his former club, slotted over a penalty of his own for Munster only three-minutes later to make it 3-3.
Munster hit the front when James Lowe was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on while Munster had a four man overlap on 24 minutes and the visitors had to settle for another three points from Carbery’s boot.
Leinster survived the ten minutes with only fourteen men without conceding any further scores and as Lowe returned to the field of play Byrne put them level with his second penalty.
It was the hosts who went in happier at half-time when Byrne knocked-over a penalty with the clock in red to make it 9-6 when the whistle blew.
It only looked like there would be one winner in the second-half as some early Leinster possession along with some poor defence from Munster led to Niall Scannell being yellow-carded.
Byrne made it four penalties from four on 45 minutes, and it was 12-6 in the hosts favour.
Carbery pulled three points back five-minutes later but that was as good as it got for the away side as within four minutes Leinster were over for the games opening try.
Some good build-up play allowed the ball to be spread out to the wide right, where it found the entire front-row as Cian Healy burst forward to pass to Tadhg Fulong, who in turn laid it on to Sean Cronin to barge his was over the whitewash.
Byrne converted and it was a 10-point game at 19-9.
Munster had promising territory over the next fifteen minutes but made nothing of it and it looked as though Leinster could break away for a try any time they got their hands on the ball.
However, it wasn’t until the final minute of play that Leinster would score again when some nice passing ended up with Lowe who battled past both Rory Scannell and Chris Farrell to touchdown in the left corner.
Substitute Sexton scuffed the conversion wide, but it meant very little as Leinster marched on to another final.
The win provided Leinster with the chance to gain back-to-back domestic titles next Saturday against Glasgow and they will be even more hungry for silverware having had their European crown taken away from them.
