Connacht 19, Leinster 18

Connacht produced one of their finest performances to oust reigning Magners League champions Leinster in a rip-roaring encounter at the Sportsground on Sunday evening.

It was the perfect response to the calamity of the Cardiff game the previous week as Michael Bradley's shored up their defence and put their bodies on the line in an awesome performance.

Leinster, who faced some searching questions after their 18-0 loss at the RDS to Munster, were left speechless with coach Michael Cheika and his players refusing to speak to the media before departing a boisterous Sportsground.

Two big spankings in Wales had left Connacht vulnerable but they were the more composed of the two sides at a packed Sportsground and carved out victory with some smart rugby.

They scored the only try of the game with an end-to-end sweeping move which finished with Mike McCarthy diving over under the posts after 44 minutes.

But the joy was a short-lived for the Connacht lock as a bout of fisticuffs later saw him singled out along with Leinster flanker Rocky Elsom and both were brandished with yellow cards.

But as McCarthy had been harshly sin-binned in the opening half it meant the end of the game for him as Connacht suddenly had to try defend a 16-9 against the wind minus a man.

However, with skipper John Muldoon and Johnny O'Connor leading the way Connacht showed enormous heart as they fought for every ball as if their lives depended on it and they looked a pale shadow of the team whacked 58-0 in Cardiff the previous week.

Leinster were not able to match that ferocity and rarely did they look like taking advantage of the extra man.

For the second week in a row Leinster failed to score a try and in the end it was just the boot of Felipe Contepomi, making his 100th appearance, which kept them in the match.

He reduced the deficit with a 47th minute penalty but Connacht countered and Ian Keatley, who had a superb match, landed his fourth kick to put a converted try between them again.

Leinster had plenty of opportunities after that to carve out a try but Gavin Duffy, Fionn Carr and Frank Murphy were making the tackles and Leinster were going nowhere.

Contepomi landed his fifth penalty to make it 19-15 with quarter of an hour to go and he reduced the margin to minimum seven minutes from time as he landed six from six.