Six-Try Triumph Keeps Leinster On Course For Top Seeding

Leinster are within touching distance of a Heineken Champions Cup home quarter-final after running out 42-14 bonus point winners over Lyon at the RDS.

A Dave Kearney brace took his handsome season’s haul to nine tries in nine games, but Lyon were only 21-14 behind at the break, Virgile Bruni’s intercept score cancelling out a Josh van der Flier effort and Hendrik Roodt crossing late on.

The French side, who had Ethan Dumortier and Felix Lambey yellow carded either side of half-time, hung in there until tries from man-of-the-match Max Deegan (53 minutes), Sean Cronin (64) and Andrew Porter (71) sealed another big winning margin for the already-confirmed Pool 1 winners.

It was a historic result for Leinster, who have now won nine Champions Cup pool games in-a-row for the first time ever. They picked up their fourth try-scoring bonus point of the campaign and will target top seeding for the knockout rounds when visiting Benetton next Saturday.

It was all Leinster right from the off, the in-form Kearney twice chipping through to create try-scoring opportunities but Luke McGrath’s grounded effort was ruled out for offside and then James Lowe knocked on from the next chance.

They duly took the lead in the ninth minute, Lowe laying off for fellow winger Kearney to score after Ross Byrne’s clever cross-field kick from a penalty. A second converted score soon followed, a terrific offload from the sniping McGrath sending van der Flier powering over the line.

Lyon’s first attempt at responding was spoiled by a crooked lineout, but number 8 Bruni gobbled up a loose pass to impressively run in from near halfway in the 21st minute. Jonathan Pélissié’s conversion halved the deficit before Leinster captain Scott Fardy had a try – an athletic leap from a ruck – ruled out by TMO Ian Davies for an earlier knock-on.

That third touchdown arrived on the half-hour mark, Lowe popping the ball off for Kearney to cross again in the right corner. Byrne’s excellent touchline conversion went over with the aid of the near post.

Yet, despite losing centre Dumortier to the bin for repeated team infringements, Lyon quickly capitalised on some loose defending from the hosts. Their lineout maul was troubling Leinster, and after Jean-Marcellin Buttin was denied at close range, South African lock Roodt burrowed over in the 37th minute with Pélissié adding the extras.

The 21-14 scoreline was not reflecting Leinster’s dominance of possession and territory, and they endured another disallowed try on the resumption due to Lowe’s forward pass. Their pack continued to hammer away a few metres out, with Lyon replacement Lambey seeing yellow for a deliberate knock-on.

The relentless pressure paid off when young number 8 Deegan, who continues to enhance his Ireland prospects, scored at the posts after Jordan Larmour had been wrapped up out wide. Out-half Byrne kept up his 100% record by converting Deegan’s bonus point try and also Cronin’s follow-up.

Leinster swiftly took advantage of Lyon winger Xavier Mignot’s binning with Cronin speeding over from a maul to make it 35-14. Porter, another lively replacement, drove low to take his side’s tally to six tries. Ciaran Frawley’s conversion was the final scoring act of a stop-start second half.

With Leinster currently in the number one seed position ahead of their round 6 trip to Treviso, Deegan said afterwards: “We’ve always been looking for the top seeding in the competition since day one. We knew if we were going to get that top seeding that we’d have to win every game, so we’ll be looking to do the same next week.

“We’ll be focusing on a short week this week and hitting the ground running. It’s been a great block there just gone (including the three interprovincial derby victories) and we just need to finish it off next week.”

The 23-year-old back rower added: “Lyon had a big physical side out there today, and it showed in the early passages of play. They were really coming at us hard. For their second try, really physical running onto the ball. Tough game, they really put it up to us.

“It looked like we were on top in the first half but they were only one score behind us. We knew if we didn’t come out strong in the second half that this game could change completely and it could be out of our hands.

“All the players focused on a fast start, a really accurate start, and the fact that we didn’t concede anything in that second half was really pleasing from a players’ point of view.”

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen was most satisfied with that strong second half spell when his charges got away from Lyon on the scoreboard, ‘weathering the storm and getting the job done eventually’.

“It was a tricky game,” he admitted. “Lyon got a bit of a rumble on to make it 21-14 and we looked a bit edgy in the dressing room at half-time. So I thought at the start of the second half the players applied themselves well and put a lot more pressure on Lyon.

“We were a bit more accurate in everything we were doing. Lyon gave away a lot of penalties at that stage, and there were a lot of stoppages in the game so we never got any real rhythm, but that period at the start of the second half was much better and then we get in for a few more tries and get the job done.”