Leinster warm-up for La Rochelle visit with eight-try defeat of Connacht

JJ Kenny of Leinster breaks clear of Bundee Aki of Connacht on his way to scoring his side's eighth try. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

URC: Leinster 52-17 Connacht  

Leinster will go into next week’s Investec Champions Cup pool game against Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle on the back of seven straight victories capped by this eight-try dismissal of Connacht in a URC interpro on a frigid Saturday night.

Leo Cullen’s side struggled for large tracts of the first-half after an impressive start but rediscovered themselves before the break and ultimately blew away a Stuart Lancaster-coached side that failed to score in that second 40.

It makes for a seventh loss in ten games this season for the Westerners but there were signs of fluency and execution from Leinster here that suggest a momentum and progression in form levels that hadn't been matching their string of wins up to now.

You really feared for Connacht after less than a dozen minutes. They were 14-0 down by then, Dan Sheehan and Charlie Tector running in tries that were well-constructed but still coming far too easily for the visitors’ liking.

Leinster had made nine changes from the side that won in Limerick seven days earlier, and were then discommoded by the losses of Harry Byrne and Rabah Slimani from their bench beforehand and the switches they prompted.

Jack Boyle moved up to the front row for Andrew Porter who instead provided cover from tighthead while Jerry Cahir and Andrew Osborne found themselves promoted to the wider squad. 

Not ideal but it didn’t seem to matter early on.

Connacht were helped no end by the stop-start game that followed their opening concessions with a couple of temporary replacements and other matters knocking the rhythm from a Leinster side who suddenly couldn’t do much right.

Sam Prendergast kicking a penalty to touch dead was one thing but it was the indiscipline shown by the hosts that was the standout for most of the rest of a half that saw Connacht grow in confidence and in execution.

Leinster had nine penalties conceded by the half-hour, and a whopping eleven by half-time, and Connacht made hay from that sort of bounty with both of their tries in response coming from five-metre tap penalties.

Dylan Tierney-Martin and Finlay Bealham claimed the scores as Leinster continued to infringe, mostly at the breakdown, with the second of them arriving just as Joe McCarthy’s ten minutes in the sinbin was coming to an end.

The turnaround was such that Connacht, with the aid of two Sam Gilbert penalties and a conversion, went into a 17-14 lead with four minutes to go to the break. Then Leinster’s initial fluency returned.

Their third try came from the restart after Bealham’s effort with a slick succession of plays that belied their previous fumblings. Prendergast’s long pass wide to Diarmuid Mangan tore open the rearguard and the out-half eventually sauntered in himself.

His missed extras left it 19-17 to Leinster at the break.

The announcement that Keane Davison would replace Andrew Brace as referee before the restart merited some cheers from the home support who, with a much stronger bench to call on, would have been confident of seeing this job through.

It was all but done soon enough, Leinster repeating their start to the first-half with two tries inside 13 minutes through Brian Deeney and Tommy O’Brien with the latter spurning another when dropping a Gibson-Park crosskick deep in the 22.

Connacht took 16 second-half minutes to work an attack worthy of the name but it came to nothing. Normal service was resumed with Tector, Tommy O’Brien and JJ Kenny stretching the scoreline out even further after 52, 62 and 75 minutes.

A good night’s work then for a side that can welcome back the likes of Rieko Ioane, James Lowe, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan and Caelan Doris for that visit of O’Gara’s Top 14 side to this same stadium next week.

Leinster: C Frawley: T O’Brien, H Cooney, C Tector, J Kenny; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; J Boyle, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, B Deeny, D Mangan, W Connors, J Conan.

Replacements: A Porter for Boyle (36); J van der Flier for Connors (45); M Deegan for Mangan (50); L McGrath for Gibson-Park, J Cahir for Clarkson and G McCarthy for Sheehan (all 63); A Osborne for Frawley (66); C O’Tighearnaigh for McCarthy (68).

Connacht: S Gilbert; C Mullins, David Hawkshaw, B Aki, F Treacy; J Ioane, M Devine; D Buckley, D Tierney-Martin, F Bealham; J Joyce, D O’Connor; J Murphy, C Prendergast, S Jansen.

Replacements: P Boyle for Jansen (7-15) and for Prendergast (51); Murphy for Devine (11); E de Buitlear for Tierney-Martin, B Bohan for Buckley, F Barrett for Bealham and H West for Mullins (all 53); D Murray for Joyce (60); C Forde for Hawkshaw (64).

Referee(s): Andrew Brace/Keane Davison.