Here are our five takeaways after an unconvincing 33-21 victory for Leinster over Scarlets in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final in Dublin.

The top line

Twenty-eight points and seven wins separated the table-topping Leinster from the eighth-place Scarlets coming into this quarter-final and fears that this knockout fixture could be a mismatch quickly materialised with the hosts scoring two tries with less than 10 minutes gone.

James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park both had easy run-ins after the visiting Welsh defence had been manipulated, but a splendid 20th-minute team move finished by Tom Rogers cut the margin to 12-7, and what followed was an entertaining period of nip and tuck play.

So concerned were Leinster that they opted to kick a penalty from near the halfway line four minutes before the interval to move it back to a two-score game (15-7), but they exited for the break just a point up after the calamity of conceding a near length of field converted try for Blair Murray after Sam Prendergast flapped at a catch.

Notions of an upset, however, were dented by the converted 46th-minute Jamie Osborne try, Sam Costelow’s poorly missed penalty kick three minutes later, and Hugo Keenan’s unconverted 60th-minute try with Scarlets a man short due to Alec Hepburn’s yellow card.

A Prendergast penalty six minutes later made it 30-14, but Scarlets commendably didn’t roll over, hitting back with a converted Johnny Williams try nine minutes from time before the yellow card shown to Vaea Fifita was followed by another Prendergast penalty.

That left the final score 33-21, securing Leinster a home semi-final next weekend against defending champions Glasgow despite their generally lacklustre performance.

‘Mixed’ watch report on Farrell’s 10 Leinster Lions

Leinster started nine of their dozen British and Irish Lions picks and had a 10th on their bench, but what was produced was collectively mixed. Jamison Gibson-Park was good value, the try-scoring scrum-half constantly looking to keep the tempo high during his 66 minutes.

Fellow try-scorer James Lowe also had some encouraging moments, once you overlooked his shanked late first-half kick that flew out on the full, while Jack Conan started excellently with his carrying.

Josh van der Flier lasted just 29 minutes, though, exiting with an unspecified injury, James Ryan looked slack when conceding a pair of first-half penalties, and Andrew Porter can’t be happy that Leinster didn’t excel at the scrum.

Glasgow Warriors v Stormers: Five takeaways as snubbed Lions and ‘old stager’ impress with the champions refinding their touch

Ronan Kelleher didn’t run a lineout that purred, and he gave way to Dan Sheehan seven minutes into the second half. The sub hooker soon showed his class for the 60th-minute Leinster try.

He brilliantly charged down Archie Hughes’ kick from a ruck and then gathered the resulting loose ball to ignite a play that ended with the effective Hugo Keenan neatly stepping inside to finish the score.

Tanks emptied by the ‘proud’ Scarlets

It has been a wretched time for Welsh regional rugby, but Scarlets deserve kudos for making a decent fist of this match and showing a few glimpses of attack reminiscent of how they stormed to league title glory in 2017.

You feared they were in for a hiding after falling 12 points behind with less than 10 minutes played, but they demonstrated commendable defiance to strike back and be just a point behind at the interval following the excellent team try finished by Tom Rogers and the opportunistic effort from Blair Murray.

They had every right to feel confident at that stage that an upset was possible; they defeated Leinster 35-22 in Llanelli 28 days earlier with 14 of the same 15 starters who were on deck for this quarter-final (the injured Gareth Davies was their only absentee).

However, they failed to kick on in the second half and will be disappointed they scored just a single converted try – a 71st-minute consolation – and were further hampered by two yellow cards.

That said, they can take great heart from only losing by 12 points as the overall fight shown demonstrated they were deserved eighth-place quarter-final qualifiers who were much improved from last year’s 13th place, where they won just five of their 18 regular season games.

Boss Dwayne Peel remarked just before kick-off how he wanted his players “to embrace it and empty the tanks”. He can be proud that they did this and caused the much fancied Leinster a few worrying headaches.

Prendergast again ‘off the pace’ in defence

Lions boss Andy Farrell is on the record that he has a couple of additional spots to fill in his tour squad and the intrigue is whether he will be bold enough to eventually include Sam Prendergast, the rookie Ireland out-half.

Touring Australia would immensely benefit the youngster’s fledgling career, with Farrell’s Ireland the ultimate beneficiary in the long run. However, his performance against Scarlets again highlighted how he mixes moments of brilliance with infuriating incidents of naivety.

He began with a lovely pass to Hugo Keenan to create the dog leg that got James Lowe in for the opening score, but this was followed by a missed tackle on the wing reminiscent of how he allowed the try-scoring Henry Pollock to evade his grasp four weeks ago in the Champions Cup semi-final.

Bulls player ratings: Willie le Roux ‘grabs game by the throat’ as prop stars ‘set the tone’ for famous comeback

Another up and down arrived just before the interval, Prendergast calmly landing a long-range penalty and then failing to take an awkward pass over his head near the try line, an error that led to Scarlets countering to score a try down the other end of the field.

The second half produced a similar pattern, his sublime chip putting Jamie Osborne in for his 46th-minute try but he sloppily missed the conversion of the Hugo Keenan try 14 minutes later.

He did land the short-range penalty to belatedly make it a three-score contest – 30-14 on 66 minutes – but he finished with his poor defence exposed by not getting a tackle in on the try-scoring Johnny Williams.

On this latest evidence, Prendergast would give the Lions some attacking options but defensively he remains way off the pace, so it would be a massive call from Farrell for him to tour.

Ref Davidson bounces back from Sam-gate

Following last weekend’s reputation-damaging decision to only yellow card Sam Underhill for foul play that was punished with a four-game ban at a midweek disciplinary hearing, referee Hollie Davidson needed a polished display at the Aviva.

The Underhill high tackle was gruesome and Davidson’s failure not to brandish the red card was heavily criticised, her mistake gravely undermining the importance of the player safety message.

In Dublin, she was authoritative in her early foul play rulings. She spotted a Tom Clarkson high tackle on 19 minutes and then, with TMO assistance, ruled against Scarlets for an off-the-ball collision on Jordie Barrett seven minutes later.

Marks were lost for the unnecessary check of the Blair Murray try after the conversion kick had already been taken, but they were redeemed with the necessary check on the grounding for the early second-half Jamie Osborne score.

The no-nonsense way she dispatched Alec Hepburn to the sin-bin for a cynical 56th-minute play on the floor further endorsed her level of command, as did her “not a high degree of danger” decision to only yellow card Vaea Fifita for his 73rd-minute high tackle on Hugo Keenan.

READ MORE: Bulls v Edinburgh: Five takeaways as Springboks powerhouses inspire ‘stunning comeback’ while Scots rue ‘crazy 20 minutes’

Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/leinster-v-scarlets-five-takeaways-as-lacklustre-hosts-see-off-proud-welsh-effort-in-quarter-final-where-ref-davidson-bounces-back-from-sam-gate