And Glasgow Warriors suffered a rare loss to the Scarlets but Ospreys kept hold of fourth with a fine win over Treviso.
TRY OF THE WEEKEND
Liam Williams finished off a fine try for the Scarlets this weekend but nothing comes close to the Dragons' length-of-the-pitch effort at Ravenhill.
Trailing 31-0 and finding themselves in a position all too familiar this season, the Dragons embarked on a fine move that freed Toby Faletau down the right. He offloaded in the tackle and the ball found Andy Tuilagi inside, who sped towards the line, looked further inside to scrum-half Jonathan Evans, who passed on to Tom Prydie for one of the scores of the season.
BREAK OF THE WEEKEND
Gareth Davies was desperately unlucky not to add to the Scarlets' winning total against high-flying Glasgow Warriors right at the death.
Collecting the ball from the base of a scrum deep into Warriors' territory, replacement scrum-half Davies produced two mesmeric sidesteps to leave three Glasgow defenders floundering.
He couldn't quite ground the ball for the try but his swivelling hips were a sight to behold.
PLAY OF THE WEEKEND
Just when chaos was set to reign supreme at Liberty Stadium, Ben John kept his cool to score one of the stranger tries of the RaboDirect PRO12 season.
Treviso's Angelo Esposito made a fine tackle to deny Ospreys a certain try in the left-hand corner but Tommaso Iannone opted to take the lineout quickly from behind his own try-line.
Scrum-half Tobias Botes clearly wasn't expecting it and he fluffed his clearance kick under considerable Ospreys pressure, leaving John to field the ball on the bounce and dot down.
PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND
The match-winning try in one of the biggest RaboDirect PRO12 fixtures of the season to tighten his side's grip on a home semi-final - it's hard to look past the returning Brian O'Driscoll.
There were the usual big hits at Thomond Park, and the flashes of quality with ball in hand and when his side, trailing by a point to a resurgent Munster, needed him most, O'Driscoll delivered with a typically low try from close range to win the match.
O'Driscoll even had the honour of kicking the ball out to seal this crucial victory for Leinster.
ONES TO WATCH
Brian O'Driscoll clearly made an impact for Leinster on his return, showing few signs of rustiness, while Paul O'Connell was again colossal for Munster.
Ian Madigan's superb form continued while there was good news at Ravenhill with Tommy Bowe making a flying return to action and Stuart Olding enhancing his burgeoning reputation.
Owen Williams, the Scarlets fly-half, also showed a maturity beyond his years to help his side comfortably see off Glasgow Warrriors while Jamie Roberts got the try his performance warranted, diving over in the mud on his final appearance at the Arms Park.
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