14-man Leinster produced a pulsating comeback at the RDS tonight as Garry Ringrose’s brace of tries helped them to a thrilling 38-29 win against Ulster.

The opening quarter saw Ross Byrne and John Cooney exchange penalties for 3-3.  With twenty minutes gone, Leinster’s Cian Healy was shown a straight red card for a head-to-head collision with Ulster’s Tom Stewart.

Dan McFarland’s men immediately made the man advantage yield as Stewart’s replacement, Rob Herring, darted over after a rampant maul.

Kieran Treadwell scored his first try of the season and with Cooney’s conversions, it was 17-3 to Ulster within half an hour. 

Winger Ethan McIlroy then scored a sublime counterattacking try, set up by Stewart Moore.  The home crowd roused Leinster into life and on the stroke of half time, Ronan Kelleher dotted down with Byrne converting.

Incessant home pressure after the break took a while to bear fruit but on the hour it did so in spectacular style.

Captain Garry Ringrose showed silky feet to evade tacklers and Ulster’s James Hume was sin binned for a head-to-head, the punishment mitigated by Ringrose’s sudden footwork.

Moments later, the Ireland man scored in an almost identical position.  With Byrne remorseless from the kicking tee, Leinster had the lead, both on the scoreboard and with a man advantage as Nick Timoney saw yellow for collapsing the maul prior to the score.

Whilst the Belfast province tried, in vain, to weather the storm, Leinster’s squad quality flexed their muscles with Andrew Porter, on as a substitute, barging over for the bonus point.

James Lowe, on his first appearance of the season, had the easiest of finishes minutes later after the pack made space and Byrne picked him out, the no10 landing a fifth successful conversion.

Replacement Sam Carter got over in the dying embers of the match to earn Ulster a try-scoring bonus point as it ended 38-29.

Yet with Leinster’s emphatic response to adversity tonight, there can only be one province satisfied with how this thriller, the epitome of a game of two halves, concluded, ahead of crunch European matches for both in the near future.