Four star James Lowe leads Leinster stroll past Connacht
15 April 2022; James Lowe of Leinster catches a crossfield kick on his way to scoring his side's eighth try during the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 Second Leg match between Leinster and Connacht at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Leinster cruised into the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals with a crushing second leg victory over Connacht in Dublin.
Four tries from James Lowe, two more from Robbie Henshaw and one apiece from Jamison Gibson-Park and Tadhg Furlong delivered an eight-try to three rout of their interprovincial rivals, who lost Bundee Aki and Jack Aungier to back-to-back yellow cards midway through the game.
The dominance of Leinster’s performance had ended this Round of 16 tie as a contest by half-time thanks to four first-half converted tries. That had opened a 30-point lead in this two-legged affair that was in stark contrast to the closely-contested first leg seven days earlier in Galway.
Leinster had edged that game at The Sportsground 26-21 and though Connacht cut that lead to just two points with a second-minute penalty at the Aviva, it rapidly turned into a very Good Friday for Leo Cullen’s men.
Those first-half tries for Gibson-Park, Henshaw, Furlong and Lowe’s first, all converted by captain Johnny Sexton, opened up a 54-24 aggregate, Connacht’s disarray compounded by a 35th minute yellow card for Aki following a late, high hit on his Ireland team-mate Sexton.
Connacht had started well, making short work of reducing the five-point first-leg deficit when flanker Cian Prendergast earned a ruck penalty straight from the kick-off. Captain Jack Carty kicked it from close-range and it appeared Connacht had gained an early psychological advantage at the start of this second leg.
Andy Friend’s side were quickly into Leinster territory again after Hugo Keenan handed them a penalty straight from the restart, his tackle in the air of opposing full-back Tiernan O’Halloran lucky not to prompt a yellow card from referee Luke Pearce. Connacht soon earned another penalty within goal-range but Carty missed the kick and Leinster would not be so generous again.
Scrum-half Gibson-Park profited from a free run to the tryline from 25 metres out after a break down the right from lock Josh Murphy and great hands from Lowe with the inside pass on 10 minutes. Henshaw struck seven minutes later, spinning out of a tackle by fellow Ireland centre Aki to score his first try of 2022.
The third try came 10 minutes later as Furlong bulldozed over the line from short-range. Lowe added his name to the scoresheet shortly after Aki’s sin-binning, the wing also spinning out of a tackle to break through the Connacht line and leave the Westerners with a mountain to climb. They trailed 28-3 on the evening and 54-24 on aggregate.
The cliff face got only steeper after half-time, Henshaw grabbing his second try of the game, again converted by the unerring Sexton.
There was a brief uptick for Connacht on Aki’s return to the field as O’Halloran claimed his side’s first try of the day but optimism was again fleeting. Ireland prop Finlay Bealham was lost to injury and his replacement Jack Aungier was in the action for just five minutes before he was lost a yellow card.
There was clearly no way back for Connacht but Lowe stuck the knife in twice more to complete a hat-trick of tries, his second and third coming either side of a try for the visitors by replacement back Sammy Arnold.
Sexton had by this time departed with a perfect goal-kicking return of six conversions, a trend continued by Ross Byrne with his conversion of Lowe’s third of the game. Devoid of jeopardy, the game was being played out to a loud murmur from the 32,604 crowd that was punctured by Connacht’s third try from replacement Abraham Papali’I. It was an extremely poor consolation.
The crowd lifted in the final five minutes as Leinster went looking for an eighth try and it was Lowe, gathering a cross-field kick from Byrne, who pounced to deliver the final blow. Byrne again converted to seal a very comfortable victory to send Leinster into the last eight.
H Keenan; J O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw (C Frawley, 66), J Lowe; J Sexton – captain (R Byrne, 57), J Gibson-Park (L McGrath, 62); A Porter (E Byrne, 51), R Kelleher (D Sheehan, 51), T Furlong (M Ala’alatoa, 51); R Molony, J Murphy (D Toner, 57); C Doris, J van der Flier, J Conan (R Ruddock, 37).
T O'Halloran (C Fitzgerald 61); J Porch, T Farrell (S Arnold, 43), B Aki, M Hansen; J Carty – captain, C Blade (K Marmion, 58); M Burke (D Buckley, 41), D Heffernan (J Murphy, 58), F Bealham (J Aungier, 43); G Thornbury (O Dowling, 43), L Fifita; C Prendergast, C Oliver (Burke – YC replacement 53-58), J Butler (A Papali’I, 58).
Aki 35-45, Aungier 48-58.
Luke Pearce (England).
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