Leinster bag home route to final as McCarthy grabs Aviva hat-trick

The Champions Cup finalists went over for ten tries in facile victory over Ospreys

SEVEN UP: Marauding lock Joe McCarthy runs in his side's seventh try as Leinster put the outclassed Ospreys through the ringer at the Aviva Stadium. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho

United Rugby Championship: Leinster 68 Ospreys 14.

A hat-trick of tries from Joe McCarthy was the highlight as Leinster secured second spot in the URC regular season table with a comprehensive final round success over Ospreys.

There was a late addition to the Leinster starting line-up for this game with James Lowe making his first competitive appearance in almost three months replacing Tommy O’Brien - who picked up a knock on Thursday.

This hardly weakened Leo Cullen’s starting XV and with just under seven minutes played, the hosts established a 14-point buffer. Following up a breakthrough try courtesy of second row McCarthy in the fourth minute, Max Deegan (on the pitch as a temporary replacement for Diarmuid Mangan) added his name to the scoresheet with a routine finish off a subsequent attack.

Leinster were in for a third converted effort when Josh van der Flier was released by Jack Conan for a simple finish on the first-quarter mark and a bonus point was secured by the Blues in the 23rd minute when Jimmy O’Brien sprinted over for his second try in as many games.

Ospreys finally fired back with a well-worked score under the posts by lock Huw Sutton, but even though Dan Edwards was on hand to add the extras, Leinster still held a commanding 28-7 interval cushion.

In fact, just under four minutes into the second half, Leinster reinforced their authority when Garry Ringose claimed his side’s fifth try of the night.

The gap between the teams became even larger when Jordan Larmour (also returning from a lengthy lay-off) touched down on 53 minutes for a well-worked try and he went on to extend his personal account with an intercept score just shy of the hour mark.

In between these efforts from Larmour, McCarthy also bagged his second try of the game following a neat Leinster move on the left flank and the player of the match proceeded to seal his hat-trick with minimal fuss on 63 minutes.

Although the final outcome was well beyond doubt, there was a significant cheer when Lowe crawled over in the left-corner for Leinster’s 10th try of the game.

An outclassed Ospreys did round off the scoring in the closing moments with a seven-pointer from Edwards, but Leinster remained in high spirits upon the final whistle and their attention will now turn to their latest European Champions Cup decider against Bordeaux Begles in Bilbao next weekend.

Scorers for Leinster: Tries: J McCarthy 3, J Larmour 2, M Deegan, J van der Flier, J O’Brien, G Ringrose, J Lowe; Cons: H Byrne 4, C Frawley 5.

Scorers for Ospreys: Tries: H Sutton, D Edwards Cons: D Edwards 2.

LEINSTER: J O’Brien; J Larmour, G Ringrose (H Cooney 50), R Henshaw, J Lowe; H Byrne (C Frawley h-t), Jamison Gibson-Park (F Gunne h-t); J Cahir (A Usanov 46), G McCarthy, R Slimani (T Furlong 46); J McCarthy (C Doris 63), D Mangan (M Deegan 4-15); J Conan (M Deegan 50), J van der Flier (R Kelleher 46), J Culhane.

OSPREYS: J Walsh (L Morgan 57), K Giles, E Boshoff, O Watkin (P Cokanasiga 59), I Hopkins; D Edwards, R Morgan-Williams (K Hardy 68); G Phillips (C Jones 47-68), E Daniel (L Lloyd 49), B Warren (K Hire 49); R Davies, H Sutton (B Roberts 70); J Ratti, J Morgan, R Moriarty (H Deaves 59).

Referee: R Campbell (SRU).