Following a 52-17 victory for Leinster against Connacht in their United Rugby Championship fixture, here’s our five takeaways from the Irish derby at Aviva Stadium.
The top line
This URC match unfolded as predicted, with Leinster getting an anticipated early run on Connacht and Stuart Lancaster’s side then temporarily fighting back before the hosts comfortably pulled clear in the second half to secure an eight tries to two win.
With Will Connors a nuisance, Leinster got off to a New Year gallop, needing just eight minutes to grab contrasting tries from Dan Sheehan out wide and Charlie Tector under the posts, but that momentum soon fizzled out and nearly the entire remainder of the half was pleasing to Connacht eyes.
What swung the exchanges was the level of Leinster indiscipline, the injury-enforced introduction of turbocharged sub scrum-half Ben Murphy and the dominant influence of Finlay Bealham at the scrum.
There was a 19th-minute Dylan Tierney-Martin try from a penalty tapped on the five-metre line and 10 further points – including a Bealham try from another five-metre tap move – with Joe McCarthy sinbinned.
That all combined to put Connacht 17-14 up but with McCarthy returning and Andrew Porter also involved from the bench, Leinster upped the tempo again and soon had a Sam Prendergast try for a 19-17 interval lead.
Less than four minutes after the resumption with a different referee now in charge, Leinster had their bonus try through Brian Deeny and the situation now existed for them to forge clear.
Tommy O’Brien crossed on 52 minutes under the posts and plenty more followed. Tector finished from a scrum move on 62 minutes and he turned provider five minutes later, racing upfield with an interception and allowing O’Brien to get his second. Josh Kenny then left Bundee Aki grasping at air to round it all off with five minutes remaining.
Crisis? What crisis?
So much for that alleged Leinster crisis, where three of their opening four matches were lost in this season’s URC. This was their seventh win on the bounce since their mid-October Croke Park crash versus Munster and they have now laid a foundation to go and thrive in 2026.
That must be pleasing for Leinster boss Leo Cullen, but scratch the surface, and the stuttering fits and starts way the leading Irish province’s star players have been playing means that with 33 days to go until Ireland run out to face France in Paris in the Six Nations, national boss Andy Farrell still has ongoing cause for concern.
Yes, Leinster have undoubtedly rediscovered how to win, but the way they are doing it – minus frills, form and undeniable week-to-week dominance by front-liners who backboned the British and Irish Lions – remains a worry after an underwhelming Autumn Nations Series.
Take, for instance, Jamison Gibson-Park’s Saturday evening effort. He started like a bomb going off, his fast-twitch play giving the Connacht defence a headache in the opening 10 minutes. For example, it was his quick tap that ignited the move for the game’s opening score.
However, the level of his contribution then dipped for quite a time in the first half and Leinster suffered before a second-half power surge had him menacingly moving again. It was enough to convince the sponsor that he merited the player of the match award, but he was far from that as it was a performance that still had several gears unused.
Similarly, Prendergast, another who flew out of the blocks and whose exploitation of space in behind was at the heart of Leinster’s second early try. His game dipped after he shanked an attempted penalty, and it took him a considerable time stretch to get back on track with that score on the blow of half-time. He was then much better composed in the second half.
The carded McCarthy was another who didn’t fully deliver. Ditto Jack Conan. And while O’Brien out wide can be thrilled with his two tries, he left a hat-trick behind as he bungled a catch with no one near him. Even Sheehan still wasn’t fully on it.
What’s the bottom line overall after the first Saturday of 2026? A skill, accuracy and energy inconsistency is eating away at Leinster’s top-end players and improvement is needed in the coming Investec Champions Cup weeks to generate some genuine optimism about Ireland in the Six Nations.
It was the likes of the Duracell Bunny Connors, two-try Tector, another workaholic newbie Josh Kenny and the enthusiastic Deeny who provided the real element of fun in this team performance, not Leinster’s expected leaders. As for Connacht, while Bealham’s scrummaging had its bright moments, fellow Lions tourist Aki was another star that didn’t glisten.
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Ref change
Crowd-pleasing rugby has been scarce this winter in Ireland. The four clubs have been bedevilled by in-game inconsistencies and inaccuracies, frustrations not helped by match officials whose only consistency is seemingly an ability to make curious decisions.
Andy Brace isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the flavour of his more experienced brew compared to some new blends doing the rounds should have been palatable on a full moon evening where the chill factor meant those in attendance wanted to see some heart-warming action.
Brace, though, was perceived as a pantomime villain by the home fans. While the opening half flew along at a fair old clip thanks to the commitment of both teams to get on with it as quickly as they could, we still had a first half that featured 15 penalties and a yellow card.
With the mercury dipping towards freezing as the evening went on and with Leinster deemed the serial offender by Brace, home fans lost patience with the official and arguably their biggest cheer of the night was when the stadium PA announcer confirmed at half-time there would be a change in referee for the second half.
Having conceded 11 penalties and a yellow in the opening period, Leinster gave up just three second-half infringements with the overall penalty count ending 14-9 against them.
The Frawley factor
Ciaran Frawley dominated the Irish headlines at the start of the week with confirmation of his two-year deal to switch from Leinster to Connacht next season.
Lancaster, who worked with the 28-year-old in Dublin as Cullen’s senior coach before his exit to Racing 92, was adamant that the utility back was coming to Galway as an out-half.
That boast goes against the grain as to how the player is viewed at Leinster, where you have to go back to last April against Ulster to find when he most recently wore the 10 shirt.
Being in the starting team somewhere is, of course, better than being a sub or sitting in the stands, but Frawley simply isn’t in the 10 discussion at Leinster where Prendergast and Harry Byrne dominate.
That selection preference doesn’t mean he isn’t putting in it with Leinster. Far from it. He was a standout at 15 last weekend in Limerick, and he was decent again here across his 66 minutes.
Coming up against his new club so soon after his transfer was announced didn’t faze him in the slightest. For example, it was Frawley who ran the support line on Gibson-Park’s shoulder to keep alive the move for Leinster’s opening score. That was quite a way for him to start a match where he was the major talking point coming into it.
Sixth try in four starts
You can’t help but love unheralded young guns who take their opportunities to impress. We had known about Connacht scrum-half Murphy for some time, so to see him give it everything in that second period of the opening half versus Gibson-Park wasn’t totally unexpected.
He is a fine player, someone who had been attached to Leinster before deciding it was best to make his career in Galway. Fair play to him for making that choice.
One newcomer who hasn’t had to make that decision and leave Leinster for game time is new winger Kenny. It was only a few months ago when he was confirmed as a belated addition to the club’s academy at the age of 22.
Having impressed as part of the wider squad over the course of the summer, he was given his chance to take that good impression further, and no one can argue that he hasn’t taken it.
His score in the closing minutes was his sixth try in just four starts and he would have had a seventh but for his hands betraying him when he stooped to gather an offload from Hugh Cooney, another eye-catching newbie, with the line beckoning.