Front Rowers Impress As Leinster Cruise Past Bath

Gallagher Premiership strugglers Bath had their moments, but seven-try Leinster proved too strong in a 45-20 Heineken Champions Cup victory at the Aviva Stadium.

In Pics: Leinster 45 Bath 20

The 25,403 spectators were treated to a free-flowing first half, at the end of which Leinster led 31-13 with Bath’s late rally seeing Jacques du Toit crash over from a well-worked lineout move.

The hosts had dominated up to that point, bagging their bonus point within 24 minutes as Jamison Gibson-Park (2), Tadhg Furlong, James Lowe and Hugo Keenan, with his first European try, all touched down.

Bath’s porous defence leaked two more tries, Ronan Kelleher and Josh van der Flier both crossing before replacement Gabriel Hamer-Webb replied with a late consolation score for Stuart Hooper’s young side.

Giving his reaction afterwards, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said: “Pleased to get a win and to get a bonus point is great. Lots of good stuff, particularly early in the game I thought.

“The last 20 minutes is probably the thing that is lingering a little bit for us, in terms of some frustrations. Because ultimately Bath win that last 20-minute period 7-0.

“If you had given it (the result) to us earlier in the week, we probably would have settled for it. For now it’s just trying to turn the page, because we’ve a short turnaround into Montpellier away next weekend.”

While Leinster ultimately emerged as emphatic winners, Cullen still feels his charges will have to step things up considerably for their round two trip to the Altrad Stadium next Friday night.

“In terms of putting together an 80-minute performance, we’re still a bit off. Montpellier picked a bit of a scratchy team for tonight‘s game (against Exeter Chiefs), but they’ve been going very, very well in the Top 14.

“It’s a great challenge for us. Going away to France is always tough. I think it’s important for the group to get excited now and look forward to that challenge.”

With six of Bath’s starters making their European debuts, a second-minute penalty from out-half Orlando Bailey settled the early nerves.

However, Leinster soon used numbers on the short side of a ruck, breaking menacingly from the halfway line as Lowe released Gibson-Park for a 25-metre run-in to the left corner.

Ross Byrne missed the difficult conversion but added the extras to Furlong’s 11th-minute effort, the Heineken star-of-the-match barging over after captain Rhys Ruddock had come around the corner from a lineout.

Bailey’s right boot briefly halved the deficit to 12-6, before another pacy Leinster surge earned them a third try. Lowe dived over from Keenan’s inviting offload, with Byrne converting.

After Bailey pushed a long-range penalty wide, Bath had Richard de Carpentier sin-binned for collapsing a maul.

Lowe returned the favour for Keenan, sending the full-back over with a lovely short pass. Byrne converted to make it 26-6.

Gibson-Park soon completed his brace, making up for a near miss from Jordan Larmour, but Bath replied before the break, Josh Bayliss breaking from a dummy lineout drive to put hooker du Toit over. Bailey converted from out wide.

Bath scrummaged well on the resumption – a notable positive for them – but Leinster slammed the door shut on any potential comeback when Kelleher bulldozed his way over for Byrne to restore the 25-point gap.

Bath went close from a maul before Leinster ended a scrappy third quarter with another try, Tom Ellis doing well to stop Ruddock before Byrne’s pass back inside saw van der Flier score. The number 10 also curled over the conversion.

Apart from a Keenan chance and some clever midfield running from Ciaran Frawley, Leinster were sloppy during the closing stages.

Bath, who are now without a win in 11 games, had some good impact from their bench. The fresh legs of Hamer-Webb benefitted from a crisp attack off a lineout to go in under the posts.