Leinster produce thrilling comeback to tame Lions

Leinster battled back from 15 points down to preserve their unbeaten United Rugby Championship record this season and secure a last-gasp 39-36 victory over the Lions.

It was a cruel ending for the Lions who were exciting in attack and crossed for tries through Edwill van der Merwe, Gianni Lombard, Marius Louw and Francke Horn as well as being awarded a penalty try but the defeat was a blow to their play-off hopes.

Vakhtang Abdaladze, Liam Turner, Michael Milne, Rob Russell and Chris Cosgrave went over for Leinster as the Irish province secured a 16th win from 17 games.

It took Leinster just two minutes to open the scoring.

Abdaladze celebrated his first start for Leinster as he burst clear and had a 30-metre run to the line to touch down under the posts and Sam Prendergast added the straightforward conversion.

But the Lions hit back after 13 minutes when Sanele Nohamba's pass after a lineout-out win set wing van der Merwe away and he broke through a series of weak Leinster tackles to score and Nohamba sent his conversion attempt off the post.

The home side defended resolutely and after soaking up Leinster pressure Lombard scored his first URC try to give the Lions the lead.

The fly-half kicked a loose ball forward and chased it down himself to touch down with Nohamba’s conversion putting the Lions 12-7 ahead.

Back came Leinster and the ball was played along the backs to outside centre Turner, who spotted a gap in the Lions backline to burst clear and touch down in the corner with Prendergast restoring Leinster’s lead.

But a minute later the Lions responded with a superb try. Lombard burst clear and offloaded to Van der Merwe, who sold a dummy to break clear and play a short pass to Nohamba and his behind-the-back pass found Louw