Connacht (10) 10
Try: Matthews
Con: Dunne
Pen: Dunne )

Leinster (3) 16
Try: Horgan
Con: Contepomi
Pens: Contepomi (2), Healy

Leaders Leinster survived late pressure from Connacht to clinch a priceless win which takes them 10 points clear at the top of the Magners League.

Connacht had claimed an interval lead thanks to a try by Keith Matthews.

But Leinster, now playing with the wind, were ahead inside the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Felipe Contepomi landed a 35-metre penalty and replacement winger Shane Horgan beat off two tacklers to make the corner for the match-winning try.

In the closing moments and with Leinster's Cian Healy in the sin-bin, Connacht launched a stirring late fightback with their prop Ronan Loughney just inches short of the try line.

However, just moments later, Leinster claimed turnover ball and breathed a collective sigh of relief when time was called on their seventh successive league win.

Connacht has scored first through former Leinster man Andy Dunne who landed an 11th-minute penalty after two earlier failures.

Leinster replied in the 20th minute in unusual fashion.

Contepomi was on target with an 18-metre penalty but the wind was so strong it blew the kick back out through the posts and had referee George Clancy reaching for his rulebook before he confirmed the score.

But with that blustery wind behind them, Connacht nabbed an injury-time try.

Conor O'Loughlin linked with Dunne before Matthews was sprung on a looping run and sent in under the posts.

Matthews was marking his first start since damaging his ankle in November and Dunne's conversion edged Connacht 10-3 ahead at half-time.

Contepomi's penalty and then his conversion after Horgan's try edged Leinster into a 13-10 advantage and the Argentinian followed up with a penalty on the hour mark.

The Connacht forwards produced an electrifying finale but the 14 men of Leinster hung on.

Connacht: Duffy, Matthews, Mostyn, Deane, Wynne, Dunne, O'Loughlin, Wilkinson, Flavin, Morris, Swift, Farley, J. Muldoon, O'Connor, Rigney.
Replacements: Merrigan, Loughney, Gannon, Ofisa, McPhillips, Donnelly, Bibo.

Leinster: Fitzgerald, Jones, Berne, Warner, Brown, Contepomi, Whitaker, le Roux, Blaney, Wright, Hogan, O'Kelly, Jennings, Gleeson, Keogh.
Replacements: Healy, Knoop, Jowitt, McLaughlin, Keane, O'Malley, Horgan.