Larmour Weighs In With Hat-Trick As Leinster Dominate Ospreys

Bouncing back into BKT United Rugby Championship action, Leinster served up six unanswered second-half tries to hammer the Ospreys 61-14 at the RDS.

An Owen Watkin effort, coupled with a penalty try, had the visitors level before Jordan Larmour regained the lead for Leinster on a night when he ran in his first senior hat-trick for the province.

Leading 21-14 at half-time, Leo Cullen’s men made it a nine-try rout thanks to further scores from Jason Jenkins, Larmour (2), Jamie Osborne, and replacements Charlie Ngatai and Tommy O’Brien.

With two rounds of the regular season remaining, Leinster are just a point behind Glasgow Warriors at the top of the table. The Ospreys, meanwhile, have fallen one place to 11th.

Ireland international Jimmy O’Brien has made a timely return from a neck injury, getting eight minutes of last week’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final under his belt before returning to the Leinster starting XV tonight.

He was quick off the mark to score inside two-and-a-half minutes, showing bags of pace from his own 10-metre line, and did very little wrong in a BKT URC player-of-the-match performance.

The Eadestown native, whose last start was back in mid-December, evaded Luke Morgan’s diving tackle to surge over from the left wing. Ronan Kelleher took out two players with a smart assist, having been picked out by Ciaran Frawley initially.

Ross Byrne converted and did likewise in the 11th minute after second row Ross Molony celebrated his 30th birthday with a well-taken close range score. Robbie Henshaw had been tackled short just moments before.

Nonetheless, the Ospreys fired back impressively when Morgan Morris linked with Watkin off a scrum, and the big centre cut inside both Osborne and Josh van der Flier for a slick seven-pointer.

The Welsh outfit were level by the 18th minute, as Dan Edwards dangled a cross-field kick over towards Morgan in the right corner. He collected the bouncing ball and was tackled in the air by Frawley, leading to a yellow card and a penalty try.

Leinster retook the lead in the 26th minute when Max Nagy failed to deal with a clever short kick from Byrne, who weighted it perfectly, and Larmour swooped in to ground the ball past the try-line.

Ominously for Toby Booth’s charges, Jenkins fended off Morgan to score inside a minute of the restart, and Byrne supplied his fourth successful conversion for a 28-14 scoreline.

By the hour mark, replacement Jamison Gibson-Park, captain Caelan Doris, and the industrious Henshaw had all contributed to a pacy attack that netted Larmour’s second try out wide.

Leinster’s best try of the night came from an Ospreys error. Following an Edwards knock-on, the newly-introduced Gibson-Park floated a terrific pass out for O’Brien to fly down the left wing.

Doris then got his hands free a midfield tackle, offloading for Josh van der Flier to send Henshaw haring through a gap, and he passed wide for Larmour to cut in past the cover and complete his brace.

Even when the ball broke for Keelan Giles, he could not connect with Jack Walsh as the Ospreys’ frustration grew. Leinster were clinical with the possession, Tommy O’Brien collecting his own kick through before passing for Osborne to dot down.

Ngatai then broke a tackle to cross from fellow replacement Scott Penny’s pass. Evardi Boshoff saw yellow late on for a deliberate knock-on, and Gibson-Park flung the ball wide for Larmour to bring the province past the half-century mark.

Full-back Frawley finished with three successful conversions, including the final one after Tommy O’Brien had chased down Jimmy O’Brien’s kick to deservedly get on the scoresheet.