Leinster comfortably defeated Connacht 5-50 in the URC on Friday evening, rising well above their west-Ireland opponents in the standings.
Here are our five takeaways from the match.
The top line
Leinster started fast and hard, with tries from Gus McCarthy, Jordan Larmour and Todd Lawlor in the opening half-hour, with only Dave Heffernan able to offer a response for Connacht.
On a wet evening, the early lead proved too much for the hosts, who were beaten up front, struggling in the scrum as Leinster ferociously pounded them.
Connacht bravely held on without conceding any more points before the half ended, but all could see that the writing was on the wall. The second half started as the first finished, with Leinster in control and Connacht desperately holding on.
Joey Carbery continued his fine kicking performance with a penalty to extend Leinster’s lead, before Max Deegan slid over for Leinster’s bonus-point score. Carbery missed the conversion, but more than made up for it 10 minutes later with a try of his own – which he converted from the touchline.
Two more Leinster tries followed, through Ciaran Mangan and Fintan Gunne, with Carbery adding the extras.
Connacht pushed hard at the end, but Leinster denied a consolation try, holding the ball up over the line, before booting it out of play 90 seconds later to bring the game to a close.
Leinster’s ferocious defence
Defensive pressure cannot be overstated. In fact, Leinster’s defence effectively won the game. The adage ‘attack is the strongest form of defence’ could easily have been reversed on Friday night, as Leinster’s defence was their strongest form of attack.
Anytime Connacht had possession of the ball, a line of light blue Leinstermen came crashing into their personal space to disrupt and destroy any chance of a cohesive attack.
The conditions made a successful Connacht attack difficult, but the Leinster defence made it impossible.
Time after time, Connacht would hammer the Leinster line two or three times before either spilling the ball or putting an aimless kick into the hands of their opponents.
Connacht benefitted only from brief respite when the ball was out of play, but otherwise their evening was haunted by the willingness for it to end.
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Joey Carbery’s masterclass
An incredible performance from the 30-year-old, who proved to be his side’s biggest attacking weapon. He displayed excellent kicking, both from the tee and in open play, controlled the game expertly and took his try well.
It’s pretty remarkable that the former Munster and Bordeaux-Bègles man has not been recalled to play for Ireland since arriving back in the country, particularly when you consider that he’s arguably playing some of the best rugby of his career.
It will be interesting to see whether this form will allow him to keep his place in the starting team when Sam Prendergast returns from Ireland duty after the Nations Championship, but if the youngster doesn’t make enough of an impact at Test level, it’s fair to question whether his club spot will be in danger.
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Strength in depth
With so many unavailable from both sides, it simply came down to which side had better strength in depth, and even a casual supporter of the game would be able to point out which side that would be.
Leinster are well known to be the best funded squad in Ireland, with the majority of the good rugby-playing schools based around the Dublin area, so they’re quite literally sitting on a goldmine of rugby talent.
So when their first team stars disappear on Ireland duty, or are forced to sit on the sidelines with injury, there’s a whole host of promising youngsters ready to put on the famous Leinster shirt.
Of course, these aren’t schoolkids who are playing in the URC, but they’ve almost all come from the local rugby breeding ground, and have received the highest quality coaching and facilities during their rise.
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So when they come up against a Connacht side, on whom just eight of their players make the Ireland team, the level of cohesion and quality well exceeds their West-Ireland rivals.
URC table
After a relatively poor start to the season by their astronomically high standards, Leinster will be very pleased to find themselves back in the upper echelons of the URC table.
Now with a 60% win rate this season, they sit in 3rd place, one behind Edinburgh at the time of writing, and one ahead of the South African side, the Bulls.
Connacht, however, have dropped down to ninth place after a couple of impressive performances before this game, but after being clearly outclassed at home, they’ll need to do some rethinking if they’re to re-ascend the standings.