Leinster beat Treviso in friendly

Leinster secured a 40-21 victory over Benetton Treviso in last night's friendly in Donnybrook.

Treviso drew first blood through a rollover effort from Dion Kingi, converted by out-half Andrea Marcato, but Leinster bounced back with a try from Luke Fitzgerald after good work from Stephen Keogh.

Skipper Felipe Contepomi added the conversion, but the green-and-whites' centre Marius Goosen stormed clear to get his side's second try of the evening.

Marcato added the points before hooker Bernard Jackman drew the hosts level at 14-14 in the 33rd minute, with Contepomi converting, to bring the sides into the interval.

Contepomi withdrew late in the half with a knee injury and his replacement, Jonathan Sexton, capped off another fine move involving the impressive Keogh to give Leinster the lead for the first time.

The hugely impressive Kevin McLaughlin powered his way through the middle and it was his break that was the impetus for a Rob Kearney try, with St Mary's man Sexton converting, to push Leinster into a 26-14 lead.

Keith Gleeson (54) and Jamie Heaslip (64) added tries to add some gloss to the scoreline before Gabriele Brussolo touched down late on for the Italians.

Speaking after the game, Leinster coach Michael Cheika said: "We showed some good, strong attacking play in spells and it wasn't a bad performance at all considering that we haven't played together in quite a while.

"It was definitely a lot more fluent than the friendly arranged at this time last year against Padova.

"We've got some good young attacking players coming through and I thought that Mick Berne showed up really well tonight. I got what I wanted out of the game and it was an important step in our build up to some big games over the next few weeks."

Commenting on the knee knock picked up by Contepomi, he added: "Felipe's okay. The pitch has had a lot of wear and tear over the last few weeks, but he should be all right.

"Malcolm O'Kelly will be available for the Connacht game next week but Ronnie McCormack has a problem with a rotator cuff (shoulder) so we'll have to wait and see on that."

LEINSTER XV

15: Rob Kearney (Ross McCarron, 70)

14: Gary Brown

13: Kieran Lewis

12: Michael Berne (Fergus McFadden, 59)

11: Luke Fitzgerald

10: Felipe Contepomi CAPTAIN (Jonathan Sexton, 37)

9: Chris Whitaker (Guy Easterby, 23) (Whitaker, ht) (Easterby, 59);

1: Stanley Wright (Fosi Pala'amo, ht)

2: Bernard Jackman (Brian Blaney, 5-10) (Blaney, 50)

3: Will Green ( Stanley Wright, 55) (Harry Vermaas, 70)

4: Cameron Jowitt (Devin Toner, ht)

5: Owen Finegan

6: Stephen Keogh (Richie Leyden, 32-ht)

7: Keith Gleeson

8: Kevin McLaughlin (Jamie Heaslip, 50).