Leinster 45
Bath 20
Ciarán Kennedy reports from the Aviva Stadium
WITH JUST 25 minutes on the clock, Leinster had already progressed to the stage of toying with Bath, dragging them from one side of the Aviva Stadium pitch to the other with the ease of a cat playing with a dead mouse.
The visitors were already down to 14 men, Richard DeCarpentier seeing yellow after a series of infringements by the English side, who simply couldn’t live with Leinster’s speed, creativity and power.
Hugo Keenan provided the bonus point try, slicing through following a neatly disguised pass from James Lowe, who carried his fine November form on to the European stage.
The scores had been coming thick and fast in those opening 25 minutes.
Jamison Gibson-Park was first over after just four minutes, applying the finishing touch after Garry Ringrose, Ciarán Frawley and Lowe moved the ball quickly through the hands to take advantage of an overlap down the left wing and summon a perfect response to Orlando Bailey’s early penalty. Ross Byrne’s missed conversion was his first black mark in 14 attempts at the posts this season. There was plenty more target practice coming his way.
Gibson-Park – making just his sixth Champions Cup start –was causing Bath real problems in the early stages with the speed of his delivery, but Leinster clearly held the upper hand in every aspect of the contest.
For the second try they turned to their power game, Rhys Ruddock peeling off a smooth lineout move only to get stopped by a combination of three Bath defenders. His teammates lined up for the second snipe, and a quick recycle saw Tadhg Furlong muscle over from close range.
Bailey added another penalty soon after but Bath were struggling to get out of their half.
Lowe then supplied the third score – getting the rub of a tight forward pass call – finishing a move that saw Leinster attack down the right wing through Van der Flier, try their luck in a more central position before swinging it wide right again, with Bath already looked tired and ragged in their defensive organisation.
Next up was Keenan for the bonus-point try, and even then Leinster didn’t take their foot off the gas. With the next attack, Jordan Larmour was inches away from adding a fifth, racing onto what looked like an overcooked Gibson-Park kick, the Leinster wing touching the ball down on the dead ball line before crashing into the advertising hoardings.
No sweat. Leinster instead tried their luck on the opposite flank, a neat piece of footwork from hooker Rónan Kelleher opening up an acre of space to allow Gibson-Park stroll through for his second. Ten minutes out from half-time, Leinster had turned their opening Champions Cup outing into a massacre.
Bath needed something to change, and got some reward after for once opting against kicking to the posts shortly before the break, Jacques du Toit muscling past Larmour in the corner, with Bailey adding a superb conversion from the sideline.
Even at that early stage, it felt like little more than a consolation. Leinster went in 18 points clear at half-time, their 62% share of the territory only telling half the story of their complete and utter dominance.
Even still, this was not a perfect performance from Cullen’s side, who came into this game on the back of a small outbreak of Covid-19 in their camp which saw three unidentified senior players ruled out, and with the likes of Robbie Henshaw, Dan Leavy, Harry Byrne, Johnny Sexton, Jack Conan and James Ryan all not involved.
There were a couple of uncharacteristic handling mistakes – perhaps inevitable given how much they moved the ball through the hands – Byrne will be disappointed with some of his kicking at the posts and the scrum showed a couple of wobbles.
Not that they were met with much resistance. Bath’s own struggles were well covered in the lead into the game, the English side winless from nine in the Gallagher Premiership and travelling to Dublin with 11 Champions Cup debutants in their squad.
One wondered if the half-time break would inject some pep in their step. Instead, Rónan Kelleher charged through for Leinster’s sixth try on 47 minutes, with Cullen then taking the opportunity to introduce a fresh frontrow in the shape of Cian Healy and European debutants Dan Sheehan and Michael Ala’alatoa, with Gibson-Park soon making way for Luke McGrath.
As is often the case, those changes took some of the pace out of the game, but Bath remained camped inside their own half before Van der Flier finally punched a hole as Leinster hit the seven try-mark for the second time in a week, Leinster taking 45 points from their first 10 visits to the Bath 22.
The changes kept coming, Tommy O’Brien coming in for his Champions Cup debut while the introduction of Jimmy O’Brien for Ross Byrne saw Frawley move to out-half for the final 20 minutes, the 24-year-old clearly enjoying the opportunity to get more ball in his hands.
However Cullen will be disappointed his team let their standards drop in the second period as the tempo slowed and errors piled up, the home side failing to score despite all their possession in the closing 20 minutes. As the 25,000 in attendance began to head for the exits, substitute Gabe Hamer-Webb snuck in for a well-executed second Bath try, with Bailey’s conversion pulling the margin back to 25 points.
As opening round fixtures go, this was as routine as it gets for Leinster. Next week’s trip to play Montpellier will surely provide a sterner challenge, but the message from Cullen’s squad was clear. Leinster feel this trophy has eluded them for far too long. Their latest charge at the top prize in European rugby is up and running.
Leinster scorers:
Tries: Gibson-Park (2), Furlong, Lowe, Keenan, Kelleher, Van der Flier.
Conversions: Byrne [5/7].
Bath scorers:
Tries: Du Toit, Hamer-Webb.
Conversions: Bailey [2/2].
Penalties: Bailey [2/3].
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose (Tommy O’Brien, 60), Ciarán Frawley, James Lowe, Ross Byrne (Jimmy O’Brien, 60), Jamison Gibson-Park (Luke McGrath 54); Andrew Porter (Cian Healy 48), Rónan Kelleher (Dan Sheehan, 48), Tadhg Furlong (Michael Ala’alatoa 48), Ross Molony (Devin Toner, 60), Ryan Baird; Rhys Ruddock (captain), Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (Max Deegan, 22-31 blood, 70).
BATH: Tom de Glanville (Tom Prydie., 68); Semesa Rokoduguni, Will Butt, Max Ojomoh, Will Muir (Gabe Hamer-Webb, 71); Orlando Bailey, Ben Spencer (Joe Simpson, 68); Lewis Boyce (Arthur Cordwell, 68), Jacques du Toit (Tom Dunn, HT), Will Stuart (D’Arcy Rae, 60); Josh McNally (Will Spencer, 52), Charlie Ewels (captain), Tom Ellis, Richard DeCarpentier, Josh Bayliss (Ewan Richards, 60).
Yellow card: Richard DeCarpentier, 24.
Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)
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