Leinster breeze by Cardiff to extend unbeaten run

Both sides had to get by without a raft of Test players siphoned off by Ireland and Wales for Six Nations duties.

Sat, 28 Jan, 2023 - 18:54

Brendan O'Brien, RDS

URC: Leinster 38 Cardiff 14

Leinster’s unbeaten season stretches to 17 games with their BKT URC defeat of Cardiff on Saturday evening and this may well have been the easiest of the lot. How bad was it? The phrase ‘non-event’ was coined for days like this.

Both sides had to get by without a raft of Test players siphoned off by Ireland and Wales for Six Nations duties. Add in a clutch of injuries in both dressing-rooms and this was always going to shine a light on strength in depth.

We didn’t need this damning evidence to know that Leinster’s goes so much deeper than virtually everyone else but the disparity between the sides was at its most obvious on the hour when they led 31-0 with five tries already in the bank.

Leo Cullen’s side had 80% territory and 78% possession at that point. Cardiff had made 154 tackles to their 35 and beaten three defenders to the 25 burned in the opposition direction. This was a rout. A public training session.

No-one will remember this in a week, let alone a year. No-one, that is, apart from James Culhane and Aitzol King, the U20 Grand Slam winners from last season who were afforded their senior provincial debuts off the bench.

Leinster took some time and a few plays to ring the rust from themselves as collective but a side with eleven players who have already appeared in Champions Cup rugby and six with Test experience was always going to find a way.

The opening score actually only took seven minutes with Max Deegan rumbling over from close-in but they turned the screw and snapped the lock on the contest with two more tries inside ten minutes much later in the half.

Luke McGrath signed for the two of them, the scrum-half finishing off a clever tap penalty preplay midway through the period and then scampering through a gap at the base of the ruck on the half-hour.

So far so easy.

Harry Byrne popped over two of his three conversions and that left it 19-0 to the hosts at the break and with the main question at the time circling around how long it would take for them to wrap up the bonus point.

Nine minutes was the answer. Cardiff had just been reduced to 14 men before that happened, Jason Harries sent to the bin for a deliberate knock-on, and tries for Max O’Reilly and Brian Deeny were claimed in his absence.

Leinster were 31-0 to the good by then so no-one batted an eyelid when Leo Cullen sent on five replacements in one sweep. It was that kind of game, a free pass for him and his squad, and there was little point in denying anyone of too much fun.

Culhane and King came on as the last of the replacements with over ten minutes to go, by which time Rory Thornton had scored what would be a converted try, and Kristian Dacey added another to put some gloss on things.

The last act was led by Leinster's outside-centre Liam Turner, one of the young guns in the starting backline, who darted and shimmied his way over in injury-time. Harry Tector added the pair of points with the last kick.

Simples.

LEINSTER: C Cosgrave, M O’Reilly, L Turner, B Brownlee, D Kearney; H Byrne, L McGrath; M Milne, J McKee, M Ala’alatoa; R Molony, B Deeny; R Ruddock, S Penny, M Deegan.

Replacements: T McElroy for McKee, M Hanan for Milne, T Clarkson for Ala’alatoa, W Connors for Penny and N McCarthy for McGrath (all 57); J Culhane for Ruddock and C Tector for Byrne (66); A King for Cosgrave (69).

CARDIFF: R Priestland; O Lane, R Lee-Lo, B Thomas, J Harries; J Evans, L Williams; B Thyer, K Myhill, K Assiratti; L Timani, S Davies; J Turnbull, J Botham, J Ratti.

Replacements: M Morgan for Priestland (21); K Dacey for Myhill and C Domachowski for Thyer (both (54); R Thornton for Timani and S Lewis-Hughes for Davies (both 68); E Bevan for Williams (70); A Summerhill for Lane (72); W Davies-King for Assirati (75);

Referee: J Peyper (South Africa)

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