| Leinster (31) 57 |
| Tries: Lowe 2, Van der Flier, Kelleher 2, Ryan, McGrath, Larmour, Doris Cons: Byrne 5, Sexton |
| Gloucester (0) 0 |
Leinster overpowered an understrength Gloucester as they strolled to a 57-0 bonus-point Heineken Champions Cup victory in Dublin.
Two tries from Ronan Kelleher and scores from James Lowe, James Ryan and Josh van der Flier saw them lead 31-0 at half-time at the RDS.
The trouncing continued after the break, with Luke McGrath, Lowe, the returning Jordan Larmour and Caelan Doris running in tries.
Ross Byrne kicked five conversions.
Larmour came off the bench in the second half for his first appearance since October, while Ireland captain Johnny Sexton also returned from injury as a second-half replacement and grabbed a late conversion.
Victory for Leo Cullen’s men made it 10 points from two European games after last weekend’s 42-10 victory away to Racing 92 in their opener.
It also continued an unbeaten start to the season for Leinster, who were vastly superior to their visitors on Friday night despite being far from their best and having spells in the game that were scrappy.
After a stop-start opening 12 minutes, Lowe opened the scoring for the hosts when he collected a fine pass from Caelan Doris to finish well.
Van der Flier got the second try six minutes later after good work in the maul and there were three tries on the scoreboard when Ronan Kelleher took advantage of more fine forward play to cross and score.
He thought he had his second 10 minutes later before his try was ruled out for him being in touch, with Gloucester then suffering a further blow when Henry Walker was shown a yellow card on 38 minutes.
Leinster took full advantage of the extra man, scoring two tries in the final few minutes of the first half, the first coming from Ryan who made sure they had their bonus point before Kelleher ran in unopposed for his second of the game.
The hosts’ complete dominance continued after the break with McGrath dancing his way over for a converted try on 46 minutes, with Gloucester temporarily reduced to 13 men when Ciaran Knight was sent to the sin-bin for repeated infringement.
There was a landmark moment for Lowe when he collected another fine Doris pass before running in what was his 50th try for Leinster, and 20 minutes later Larmour marked his welcome return with a try after great work from Dan Sheehan.
Giorgi Kveseladze briefly threatened in a rare Gloucester attack before Doris completed the scoring in injury time with the try his performance deserved, leaving Sexton to kick the extras with the final touch of an encounter which Leinster were in complete control of throughout.
Leinster: Keenan; O’Brien, Ringrose (capt), Ngatai, Lowe; R Byrne, McGrath; Porter, Kelleher, Ala’alatoa; Molony, Ryan; Doris, Van der Flier, Conan.
Replacements: Sheehan, E Byrne, Healy, McCarthy, Deegan, Gibson-Park, Sexton, Larmour.
Gloucester: Evans; Hearle, Kveseladze, Twelvetrees, Morris; Barton, Meehan (capt); Elrington, Walker, Knight; Thomas, Clark; Polledri, Clement, Tuisue.
Replacements: Blake, Seville, Gotovtsev, Craig, Taylor, Chapman, Atkinson, Moyle
