Gloucester 14
Leinster 49
LEINSTER SPENT ALL week talking up the need to silence the Kingsholm crowd and it took the province only 10 minutes to do just that as they powered to a 15th straight win of the season, putting seven tries past Gloucester in this round three Champions Cup clash.
After the early afternoon rain cleared in Gloucester, two early tries from Jordan Larmour and Michael Ala’alatoa had Leinster on their way to solidifying their place at the top of Pool A, leaving Leo Cullen’s side well placed ahead of next weekend’s Aviva Stadium date with Racing.
Leinster had the bonus point wrapped up before half time, Jamie Osborne and Caelan Doris adding to the early scores from Larmour and Ala’alatoa.
Osborne, making his first Champions Cup start, will be particularly pleased with his work, the 21-year-old causing the hosts problems with his footwork and clever running lines – with Ireland attack coach Mike Catt and defence coach Simon Easterby watching on from the stands, it was a timely performance ahead of Thursday’s Six Nations squad announcement.
Larmour was first over the line for the visitors, strolling through after a well-worked Leinster lineout saw Doris tuck a pass in behind for the in-form winger. Ross Byrne converted and with just four minutes on the clock, Leinster were off the mark.
They continued to build pressure and seep the energy out of near-capacity Kingsholm crowd.
With just over 10 minutes played, Osborne surged up the field and while Gloucester recovered to ground the centre, Seb Atkinson was yellow-carded for offside. Leinster took a quick penalty and Ala’alatoa crossed with ease, with Byrne adding a second conversion.
Following that early Leinster burst Gloucester began to settle into the contest, Cullen’s side failing to score during the 10 minutes Atkinson spent off the field. Carrying hard at a disciplined Leinster defence, the home side threatened a response when Val Rapava Ruskin was held up over the line.
They continued to lift the tempo. Chris Harris thundered into Garry Ringrose before Ollie Thorley did the same to Osborne, who was subsequently swallowed up and pinged. From the resulting lineout referee Pierre Brousset awarded Gloucester a penalty try and yellow-carded Andrew Porter for collapsing the maul.
Leinster responded with their most impressive passage of play of the opening half. Running a beautiful line to meet a sharp Jamison Gibson-Park, Osborne skirted inside and left two defenders on their backside to cap his first Champions Cup start with a try. Byrne added the extras and Leinster went after the bonus point score.
It arrived just before the break, Doris crossing with support from Ryan following a frustrating series of reset scrums. Byrne clipped over the extra two and Leinster took a healthy 28-7 lead into the changing rooms.
They started the second period with the same attacking intent, Ross Byrne heavily involved in the passage of play that led to Hugo Keenan scoring their fifth try six minutes after the restart.
The out-half’s smart inside pass released James Ryan, who found himself with a rare opportunity to test his top speed and bring Leinster into the Gloucester 22. Leinster recycled the ball and spun the ball out to Byrne, who read the situation well to bat the ball out wide to Keenan with one hand, the fullback showing good speed to beat his man on the outside and cross. Byrne nailed his fifth conversion before younger brother Harry was sent on to gain some valuable European experience.
The changes led to a dip in the tempo of Leinster’s play before Gloucester enjoyed their first spell of pressure of the second half.
Just after the hour mark they ran at Leinster in numbers. Billy Twelvetrees ran an arching line and fired a pass inside to Ollie Thorley, who in turn released Jonny May, the winger breaking the Leinster line and running in under the posts, only for the play to be pulled back for a forward pass.
Penalty advantage afforded Gloucester another opportunity. Again, they turned to their power game and for the second time, a Leinster player was sent to the bin for collapsing the maul, this time Doris the guilty party as Brousset awarded Gloucester a second penalty try.
As the game entered the final 10, Leinster struggled to find the cohesion and accuracy that had allowed them to pull clear, but shortly before Doris returned to the action, they put to bed any lingering hopes of a Gloucester comeback, Josh Van der Flier burrowing over after a series of patient charges at the tryline.
There was even time for a seventh – Ronan Kelleher putting the finishing touch to a powerful lineout maul as sections of the Gloucester crowd made their way to the exits.
Leinster head for home with a third Champions Cup bonus win to their name – scoring 148 points along the way – with the province rarely troubled at Kingsholm as they continue to set the pace in Pool A.
Gloucester scorers:
Tries – Penalty (2)
Leinster scorers:
Tries – Larmour, Ala’alatoa, Osborne, Doris, Keenan, Van der Flier, Kelleher
Conversion – R Byrne [5/5], H Byrne [2/2]
GLOUCESTER: George Barton (Billy Twelvetrees, 53); Jonny May, Chris Harris (Tom Seabrook, 67), Seb Atkinson, Ollie Thorley; Santiago Carreras, Ben Meehan (Steve Varney, 58); Val Rapava Ruskin (Harry Elrington, 58), George McGuigan (Seb Blake, 55), Kirill Gotovtsev (Ciaran Knight, 60); Freddie Clarke (Cameron Jordan, 60), Matías Alemanno; Ruan Ackermann, Lewis Ludlow (captain), Ben Morgan (Jack Clement, 60).
Yellow cards: Atkinson 11, Carreras 78
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jordan Larmour (Michael Milne, 36-37), Garry Ringrose (captain) (Liam Turner, 63), Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O’Brien; Ross Byrne (Harry Byrne, 52), Jamison Gibson-Park (Nick McCarthy, 56); Andrew Porter (Michael Milne, 73), Dan Sheehan (Ronan Kelleher, 52), Michael Ala’alatoa (Cian Healy, 52); Ross Molony (Brian Deeny, 63), James Ryan; Ryan Baird (Jack Conan, 56), Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.
Yellow cards: Porter 26, Doris 65
Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)
Attendance: 13,164
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good thing gloucester put out a strong team…or that could have got ugly for them…
@Paddy Kennedy: Osborne wow! Take a bow young man.. a World Cup bolter… Hume should be worried, scary to think he’s just turned 21.. massive ceiling!
@Paddy Kennedy: Serious few mouth pieces in their squad for a team that lived off maul penalty tries and a few scrum penalties. My highlight of the game (aside from the Leinster tries) was I think their No.6 Ackermann starting mind games and sledging post winning a scrum with the clock red in 40mins. Gloucester kick for touch, lost it, gave away the penalty, and Leinster punished them with a try before HT. Salt in the wounds stuff – beautiful!
@Ultan Corcoran: yeah i noticed that…thing is though…front rows are funny guys. they just go from one battle to the next and each battle won is to be celebrated…overall result is almost irrelevant to them…and they probably had the best of the FR battle until healy came on…but you do look a bit silly giving it the big one when you’re 28-7 down at home at half time…
@Ultan Corcoran: leinster, the PSG of rugger.
That’s some performance from Leinster. The skill, power and execution is just amazing the watch. Osbournes stock keeps rising and looks the real deal. Home knockouts look an absolute certainly now and they’ll be a force by then with all injured players back hopefully.
Osbourne underscoring that article from earlier in the week….. If there’s an injury to a centre in the Irish camp he’s in with a really good shout.
@SPQH: Just needs to learn a bit of game management. Never should have passed to Ringrose when he had the chance to clear his lines and it ended up leading to Gloucester’s first try. Pretty much the only error he had all game. Incredible prospect for sure.
Ringrose predicts the future, his tackle on Harris, he’s next level these days, with his reading of the game.
9/10 performance, only question around the scrum
@Blindside: They were good… But they left a lot of points out there & turned over a lot of ball in the poison 22. I reckon they could have put another 4/5 tries on them if they were fully stacked at their clinical best
I made the point earlier in the week Osborne must have a chance at playing 12 for Ireland; he’s for my money (with Henshaw injured) the best 12 in Ireland in recent months, and it would be great for Farrell to reward that with a start versus Wales.
@Andrew Hurley: easy to look good during a cakewalk. Look at Nick McCarthy, he looked very comfortable and he’s brutal. Not saying Osbourne isn’t promising but every year it’s the same clamour for “new Leinster star must start in 6N” eg Harry Byrne or Ryan Baird. Let’s not lose perspective. Wales in the 6N is a different proposition (even the current Wales)
@Emmet Martin: Probably because Leinster are playing a couple of levels above anyone else in Ireland for a number of years so it makes sense
@Lorcan Quinlan: no one is saying Leinster aren’t the best team in Ireland but the likes of H Byrne and Baird have shown they weren’t ready for the “second coming” hype. Certain journalists and ex Leinster players equally guilty of overhyping
@Emmet Martin: I disagree about Baird I think he is going to have a brilliant 2022 if he stays injury free.
@Lorcan Quinlan: 2023
@Emmet Martin: I thought I was the only person that thought this of McCarthy!
I can’t believe we took him back and sent Paterson the other way, who is on fire for Munster.
McCarthy is just all arms and legs, missing the snappy play that Leinster live off. He’s more of a physical, Connor Murray type player.
@Joseph Blocks: I thought that McCarthy’s been better in the last few games; and had some good actions yesterday. But also it seemed very clear that his delivery was a lot slower than JGP’s
Brilliant performance and still not hitting top gear yet . You can only play what’s in front of you but we weren’t really tested .
Fair play to Gloucester, kept playing, cost them a try before half-time after just halting Leinsters attack only to keep ball in play and lose it. At the death too, still going for it. What’s the point? The point is they respect their fans, give them a show even when the game was lost, great to see.
The skillset of the Leinster forwards, in the loose, is what makes the difference. It allows Gibson Park to snipe around rucks knowing that any of the pack can comfortably get the ball away to the first receiver. Makes it almost impossible to slow ball down.
Absolute Leinstertainment from Ireland’s most successful rugby club.
The threat of the Gloucester maul was well telegraphed as something to look out for, we dealt with it OK though, obviously McBryde & Co had a look at it, Gloucester still got change out of their maul though, but then so did we. Carreras was poor for Gloucester, heard some hype about him but wasn’t his day today.
Good win against a decent side compared to last time but lots to get better on which is good too. Hopefully last away day in this competition. Fingers crossed munster limp into the last 16 after today before next week and set up a Leinster munster game in dublin in knockouts. Exciting times but trophies are what this team are judged on compared to others and “great runs”
A better team would have made us work for that win. 2 penalty tries from the mail. Lineouts and scrums were woeful. And our mauls were poor enough. Its one thing being able to cope at this end of the season against poor teams, but I feel like we will be found out quick enough against the better ones.
No, I’m not fun at parties.
@Conor O’Farrell: Ah, but you ARE fun at parties.
@B Collins Further proves my point!
@Harry O’Callaghan: absolutely
The last visitors to cause this much havoc in Gloucester was the Romans. And like them, we came we saw and we conquered. C’mon leinster