Sexton exits early in Blues cruise
Peerless Leinster dominate Dragons in first-night stroll
NEW season, same old story. Leinster are targeting a fourth consecutive title and they will take some stopping again based on l ast night’s evidence.
The other Irish provinces and possibly Edinburgh will have something to say about that, but the drop-off in quality is seismic when you dig deeper into the Pro14. The likes of the Dragons — for all their recent signings — are still miles off the pace.
You can see why tournament chiefs are keen to get South Africa’s Super Rugby heavyweights involved as soon as possible. This competition badly needs an injection of quality, but it still won’t solve the long-term problems. A potential Pro16 l ooks very bloated. You’d fear for the likes of the Dragons if they have to head to places like Pretoria and Johannesburg. They had another rough night here at the RDS.
The men from Gwent have been cannon fodder for Leinster in this competition. The scorelines from the past three encounters told its own story: 54-10, 52-10 and 50-15. It was another procession here.
This was easily the strongest Dragons team to arrive in the capital for quite some time, but they were still off the pace. The presence of Welsh internationals Aaron Wainwright and Ross Moriarty in the backrow commanded plenty of respect, but they spent most of the evening on the back foot, soaking tackle after tackle.
This Leinster team was still hurting from that ambush in the Aviva. Watching the pre-match warm-up, you got the feeling that the hosts had plenty of pent-up frustration following that beating at the hands of Saracens.
‘The Defence Begins’ was the war cry coming from Leinster’s social media channels in the hours leading up to kick-off. They started like a train here.
There was plenty of talk about Leinster’s scrum and the concession of seven penalties in that illfated European quarter-final. Cian Healy and Andrew Porter were on the bench last night but starting props Ed Byrne and Michael Bent made an early statement, bulldozing the Dragons pack as referee Andrea Piardi reached for his whistle.
Leinster went into their multiphase game soon after with Johnny Sexton threading a subtle chip i n behind the blitz defence only for Hugo Keenan to knock on in the in-goal.
Leinster lost Ciaran Frawley soon after when he took a heavy blow to the head after a heavy collision with Roberts in midfield. The promising centre left the field for a HIA but he would not r eturn with r ookie Tommy O’Brien filling in from the bench.
It took the hosts a while to hit their stride, but they came to life in the 17th minute thanks to a scything break from James Lowe, which laid the platform for Garry Ringrose to weave his way over the line four phases later. The Dragons lost Roberts to the sinbin after the midfielder caught O’Brien with a high tackle in the lead-up to Ringrose’s try. Sexton fired over the conversion.
Jordan Larmour stepped his way through some weary Dragons defence to score in the corner as Leinster ploughed their way upfield. Sexton’s exquisite pass to tee up Larmour would prove to be his last act of the evening as the Leinster and Ireland captain made his way from the action soon after. It looked more precautionary than an emergency but it was not an ideal development with those Six Nations games looming at the end of the month. Ringrose would fire over the touchline conversion in his absence as Ross Byrne entered the fray.
James Lowe was the he next to cross but it was Ringrose, Rhys Ruddock ddock and Keenan who caused all the initial damage.
It was now a question of when, not if, the bonus-point try would arrive. The Dragons may have considered it a minor victory to keep it to 21-0 at the break, such was Leinster’s utter dominance.
Lowe finished brilliantly for Leinster’s fourth try before Dragons wing Ashton Hewitt did even better to score in the opposite corner a few minutes later.
Replacement lock Ryan Baird offered a glimpse of the future when he charged through Moriarty for Leinster’s fifth try. It was just all too easy, and that’s been