Leinster made it five wins out of five so far in this season’s United Rugby Championship as they edged out Connacht 10-0 at the Sportsground.

It was far from a classic in Galway but Leinster will be delighted to come away with the result that moves them six points clear at the summit on Friday evening.

The wet and windy conditions made for a scrappy first half, scrum-half Cormac Foley scoring off an early lineout to give Leinster a seven-point advantage.

Connacht were left to rue their missed opportunities as a break from Player of the Match Josh van der Flier set up replacement Ciaran Frawley to kick the visitors to their fifth victory of the new season.

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Leinster cracked open the home defence inside the first three minutes, Van der Flier breaking off a maul and feeding Foley for a simple finish. Ross Byrne expertly converted from out wide.

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Two Niall Murray lineout steals lifted Connacht, as well as his charge-down on Foley, but a subsequent knock-on spoiled their first visit to Leinster 22.

Connacht’s improved maul defence kept the deficit at seven points at the start of the second quarter, before they hurried Leinster into more errors.

The Westerners’ own lineout drive was halted short, and the radar was off when Colm Reilly’s looping pass to Mack Hansen went into touch.

As the rain came down, the slippery ball was Connacht’s undoing when they failed to capitalise on a scrum penalty. Byrne then pulled a 40-metre penalty wide.

A late Connacht onslaught, on the back of a scrum penalty conceded by Tadhg Furlong, went unrewarded, with Paul Boyle held up before half-time.

Number eight Boyle was prominent on the restart and, while Leinster continued to have lineout issues, Connacht were wasteful again from a gilt-edged maul opportunity.

Although Byrne missed a 54th-minute penalty attempt, Connacht’s execution let them down when their maul was grounded and then a lineout to the tail was knocked on.

As good as Conor Oliver’s work at the breakdown was, it was sandwiched by two poor Connacht kicks that went straight into touch. It was Leinster who went up a gear during the closing stages.

Dan Sheehan and Van der Flier both made breaks, the latter being brought down by John Porch. Murray infringed, received a yellow card and had to watch Frawley seal Connacht’s fate.

Ospreys snatch draw against Stormers

Elsewhere, Scott Baldwin’s try five minutes from time snatched a 16-16 draw for the Ospreys against the Stormers in a hard-fought game in the relentless Swansea rain.

Stephen Myler held his nerve to kick a difficult conversion and give the hosts a deserved share of the points – their second draw of the season following their 23-23 result against the Scarlets on the opening weekend.

Myler also succeeded with three penalties, with Manie Libbok kicking three penalties and a conversion of Paul de Wet’s try for Stormers.

The Stormers – the United Rugby Championship title-holders – dominated the opening period and took the lead with a penalty from Libbok, but that was the only score of a featureless first quarter.

During that period the Ospreys barely ventured into the opposition half, but the miserable conditions prevented their opponents from capitalising, despite a few powerful bursts from centre Dan du Plessis.

It was therefore left to Libbok to extend their advantage with a superbly struck penalty from inside his own half.

However, the Ospreys seemed to have the edge in the scrum, winning a couple of penalties, with Myler kicking one of them to put the Welsh region on the scoreboard.

That score buoyed the hosts to produce the best move of the half. Skilful handling sent George North away down the right flank before good ball retention created a try-scoring opportunity, but Keelan Giles could not gather a poor pass from Jac Morgan with the line beckoning.

As a result the Stormers led 6-3 at the interval, but the home side controlled the early stages of the second half and drew level with a second penalty from Myler.

The game badly needed a spark and it came from an excellent move from the South Africans which resulted in the first try.

On half-way, an inside pass from Libbok sent Leolin Zas through a huge gap in the home defence before the wing sent De Wet racing over. Libbok converted to give his side a 13-6 lead going into the final quarter.

The Ospreys won another scrum penalty, which Myler kicked, but Libbok soon nullified this with his third success.

The game looked up for the hosts, but they conjured up a late rally, with replacement Baldwin finishing off a driving lineout to reward a period of pressure.