The festive season is a time for giving and the Guinness PRO14 certainly delivered its fair share of stunning tries in Round 12. With a plethora of derby day fixtures and local bragging rights to be ascertained, players from across the competition took the chance to notch up a smattering of thrilling try scoring action. Here are five of the best dot downs from the weekend’s action: Rey Lee-Lo (Cardiff Blues) With the game tightly poised against near rivals Scarlets, the 32-year-old Samoan centre sent the visitors into an unstoppable ascendancy with this fine score. Aided by the vision, presence and speed of teammate Willis Halaholo’s cutting run, all Lee-Lo was left to do was evade one tackler and sprint to put the ball over the whitewash. Lee-Lo’s try scoring exploits didn’t stop there however, as the Cardiff man notched up his second of the afternoon only minutes later to seal derby delight for the men from the capital. Caolin Blade (Connacht) Both the architect and the finisher, Blade played a key role in putting daylight between his Connacht side and rivals Ulster with a dazzling show in this move. The 24-year-old sumptuously chipped over for teammate Jack Carty to run onto and the fly-half gathered the ball comfortably with the try line beckoning ahead. Carty played the ball to the man on his right shoulder where he found Blade continuing his run and all he had to do was dive over for the adulation. Johnny McNicholl (Scarlets) It wasn’t to be on the day for Scarlets, but their fans can take some consolidation away from the defeat by Cardiff after a stunner from McNicholl. The New Zealander racked up his fifth try of the campaign, but he had teammate Will Boyde to thank for the feat after the Wales U20 flanker exhibited a fine pair of fast hands. A neat exhibition from Boyde set McNicholl away and all that was left for the former-Canterbury man to do was dash down the wing to reduce the deficit. Angus Kernohan (Ulster Rugby) Ulster brought themselves kicking and screaming back into the clash against Inter-pro rivals Connacht when a chip over the top from Johnny McPhillips sent the visitors defence into a malaise. The 21-year-old’s kick left Connacht in disarray and Kernohan was lucky enough to see the ball bouncing in his direction, leaving the academy graduate with no option but to show off his footballing ability. Kicking the ball over the visitors try line, Kernohan had enough energy left in the tank to throw his bodyweight at the ball and touch down in style. Federico Ruzza (Benetton) There was only one winner in the all-Italian derby as Benetton extended their advantage against rivals Zebre thanks to a perfect flowing move from Kieran Crowley’s men. Rapidly switching the ball from right to left, Iliesa Ratuva Tavuyara found himself in possession with two hulking defenders standing in his way. But Tavuyara showed exceptional quick thinking to dispatch the ball to teammate Ruzza to evade the Zebre defenders and score the second try of the match for his side.
