Dan Sheehan shines on return as Leinster weather Stormers

Dan Sheehan scored twice on his return from a seven-month lay-off as Leinster recorded a 36-12 victory over Stormers in the URC.

Named player of the match for his 62 minutes on the pitch, the Ireland hooker was making his first appearance since suffering an ACL injury last July and captained Leinster as they ran out comfortable winners against the South African side at Aviva Stadium.

Sheehan and James Lowe, both returning after injury, will now depart for Portugal to join up with the international side at their training camp ahead of next Saturday's Guinness Six Nations clash with England.

Andrew Osborne (2) and Jordie Barrett scored the other Leinster tries, while Ross Byrne kicked 11 points off the tee.

Leo Cullen's side extended their lead at the top of the URC table to 15 points ahead of tomorrow's clash between second-placed Glasgow against Connacht.

In front of an attendance of 18,892, Byrne opened the scoring with a third-minute penalty. Barrett then provided the assist for Osborne to dive over, eight minutes later.

However, Byrne's well-struck conversion proved to be Leinster's last score until a late attack saw Sheehan surge over, just before the interval.

In between - after a couple of false starts - the 11th-placed Stormers landed a high-quality try off first-phase ball.

Playing with a penalty advantage, they attacked at pace and winger Loader was the beneficiary of a good set-up involving Manie Libbok and Warrick Gelant. The Springbok fly-half also converted.

However, the visitors lost Libbok to injury just before Sheehan showed his pace to finish off neat combination work between Henry McErlean, Barrett and Lowe.

Despite Stormers hooker Joseph Dweba earning an important turnover penalty, they could not keep Leinster