Leinster christen new home in some style as Clermont away day looms

Mindful of facing a Clermont side who will have played six games when they meet in the Stade Marcel Michelin next Saturday, Cullen gave his returning frontliners long shifts in URC win

HOME COMFORTS: Leinster's Jamie Osborne scores his side’s fifth try in their win over Cardiff at the newly recast Laya Arena (formerly RDS) in Dublin. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho

United Rugby Championship: Leinster 29 Cardiff 5

THE Laya Arena looked resplendent and there was enough in a satisfactory bonus point win at their refurbished home to send the 20,035 crowd into the night contentedly.

At the same time, there was also enough rustiness and clunkiness in the performance, not least in a near 40-minute spell without a score, to give Leo Cullen and his coaching staff plenty to work on.

Perhaps the slight sense of anti-climax is unfairly heightened by Leinster having set the bar so high in the first quarter - easily their best of the match. There was purpose aplenty in their carries and recycling, with Sam Prendergast looking fit and strong as he glided over the turf in running with purpose and produced some typically sublime touches in a man of the match performance.

Yet there were also times when the Leinster attack became a little narrow and pedestrian, and it was also a mite too discomfiting that Cardiff were able to outflank the defence so readily with bridge passes, albeit Leinster restricted Cardiff’s lively attack to one off the cuff try from a quick penalty.

Mindful of facing a Clermont side who will have played six games when they meet in the Stade Marcel Michelin next Saturday, Cullen gave his returning frontliners long shifts, with Jack Conan going for over an hour and Dan Sheehan over 70 minutes, as Joe McCarthy finished the game at blindside flanker, while James Ryan, typically, went the full 80 on his return.

Leinster’s grand and overdue homecoming was blessed with a lovely, still autumnal October night in D4 and with its spacious surrounds there was almost a carnival-like atmosphere around the ground in the build-up.

The sense of anticipation must have been acute among the playing squad as well and despite fielding nine players making their seasonal bows in their starting XV, Leinster were also razor sharp out of the blocks.

There was an inevitability about the opening try, Tadhg Furlong passing out the back for Prendergast, and Dan Sheehan provided the link for Hugo Keenan to chip, left-footed, over the last defender perfectly and gather just short of the tryline.

A scrum penalty to the corner led to Aled Davies being binned when playing the ball as the second man in sort of the Cardiff line, and Leinster utilised their numerical advantage with a simple 9-15-11 blindside move for O’Brien to score in the corner.

Leinster’s ambition to work turnover ball into the edge, something they had sought to harness last season, was a striking feature and when McCarthy popped a Cardiff knock-on up to Furlong the tight-head looped a long pass to Prendergast.

He eyed up a front-rower and sped around him before releasing O’Brien and though he was tackled short Conan took a sharp out-in line to score from Max Deegan’s transfer off the recyle.

The one blemish was Prendergast missing his third and most kickable conversion, and Leinster suddenly lost their way for a spell before being caught unawares when Callum Sheedy quick-wittedly crosskicked a penalty for Mason Grady to gather and score.

Taine Basham, a late call-up for Taulupe Faletau, beat Scott Penny off the base of a scrum and Le Roux Malan would have outflanked the Leinster defence to release Jacob Beetham but his pass was forward before Leinster rediscovered their mojo to secure the bonus point before half-time.

A phased attack wore down the Cardiff defence, Coffey and Garry Ringrose combining to hit Prendergast, who was again the instigator in chief, beating Beetham on his inside and dummying Matty Young to give O’Brien a clear run-in to the corner again. What’s more, he landed the conversion for a 22-5 interval lead.

Again though, a low-key third quarter becalmed the home crowd, save for some defensive sets as the Blues replacement halves, Johan Mulder and Jarrod Evans, injected some tempo. After Coffey’s covering tackle on Mulder saved one try, Malan did hit Beetham on the edge with a bridge pass but Keenan’s tackle and Prendergast’s counter-ruck kept Cardiff out.

After a somewhat anti-climactic the occasion and the crowd demanded that Leinster apply one of their late flourishes and that they did, after Robbie Henshaw injected some urgency into another phased attack and Garry Ringrose dummied to make big inroads.

A few phases later, Prendergast took Ringrose’s pull-back to dummy a defender and deftly hung a popped pass into space _ as if somehow suspending the ball in the air _ for Jamie Osborne to gather and spin out of a tackle to score adroitly over his right shoulder while landing on his back.

Prendergast converted his second try assist.

LEINSTER: H Keenan, J Kenny, G Ringrose, J Osborne, J O'Brien, S Prendergast, O Coffey; A Usanov, D Sheehan (capt), T Furlong, J McCarthy, J Ryan, M Deegan, S Penny, J Conan.

Replacements: T Clarkson for Furlong, Fintan Gunne for Coffey (both 56), P Dooley for Usanov, A Spicer for Deegan (both 64), J Ericson for Conan, R Henshaw for Keenan (both 66), R Kelleher for Sheehan (73), Caspar Gabriel for Osborne (76).

CARDIFF: M Young, J Beetham, H Millard, L Roux Malan, M Grady; C Sheedy, A Davies; D Southworth, L Belcher (capt), J Sebastian, J Mcally, T Williams, A Mann, D Thomas, T Basham.

Replacements: S Wainwright for Sebastian (25-37 and both 64), J Mulder for Davies, J Evans for Sheedy (both 52), E Lloyd for Thomas, R Barratt for Southworth (both 64), S Paea for Belcher (67), R Thornton for Mann (76).

Referee: S Grove-White (SRU).