Leinster flag up their quality by bombarding Bath in six-try rout
A good gauge of the mood in Irish rugby was how a crowd of more than 42,000 braved Storm Deirdre to support Leinster in their six-try rout of Bath. The same blue flags that had been banned from the Recreation Ground last week on health and safety grounds were distributed among fans in the Aviva Stadium, creating a wall of blue to taunt the opposition.
Another positive sign for the continued growth of the champions is how their production line keeps churning out quality with inside centre Rory O’loughlin the man of the match. The 24-year-old scored a try but particularly impressed in his defensive efforts.
Along with Wasps, Todd Blackadder’s side are out of contention to qualify from Pool One, while the Irish province and Toulouse dominate the group.
After Bath had put in a strong performance at the breakdown last week to restrict their defeat to 17-10, they hoped to be defiant again but captain and lock Charlie Ewels was left feeling low. “We are very disappointed as a group not because of the result but because of the performance. We set a standard we wanted to live up to last week and we didn’t do that,” he said. Leinster had wrapped up a try bonus point by halftime with No 8 Jack Conan opening the scoring and O’loughlin, James Lowe and Leinster academy product Adam Byrne following. Bath did show defiance in the middle of the opening half which led to back row Francois Louw getting a try.
Ewels also hailed Leinster as the top club in Europe and believes that Bath can learn from them.
“It is not so much about copying what they do but belief in what we do,” he said. “When we get it right, we can be good enough to beat the best in Europe. The challenge for us is to get it right for more than 20 minutes in a game.”
In a more fragmented second half, Leinster managed two more tries via back row Dan Leavy and replacement scrum-half Jamison Gibson-park. Sam Underhill’s try was too little too late for Bath.