Leinster stars tick Nienaber's boxes as they humiliate Harlequins
MATCH REPORT: Leinster booked their spot in the Champions Cup quarterfinals after they pummelled Harlequins 62-0 at Croke Park on Saturday.
The Irish province scored 10 tries during the 80 minutes.
Meanwhile, former Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber will be a proud man after his side produced an outstanding defensive performance.
The visitors actually started the match superbly and they applied the early pressure with ball in hand.
Harlequins fullback Leigh Halfpenny had an opportunity to open the scoring in the fourth minute, but he could not find the distance with his long-range penalty attempt.
After weathering the story in the early stages, it was Leinster’s turn to show what they can do with ball in hand and their patience on attack resulted in a try for Sam Prendergast in the corner.
Not long after that, the home side showed great continuity and width on attack before lock Joe McCarthy was put into space to score his team’s second try.
After missing his first conversion attempt, Prendergast was on target with his one to add the extra two points.
Leinster continued to find space in Harlequins’ defence and after some great interplay between backs and forwards, wing Jamie Osborne sprinted in for his team’s third try.
Prendergast was on target with the conversion.
It was more of the same in the opening minutes of the second half. However, this time Leinster’s fourth try came via a strong maul with Josh van der Flier scoring the points.
Garry Ringrose and Dan Sheehan also added their names to the scoresheet before Leinster were awarded a penalty try in the 66th minute after a deliberate knock-on by Luke Northmore.
Things got worse for the visitors in the closing stages with Ross Byrne scoring a try before wing James Lowe added a brace.
Man of the match: The award goes to Leinster flank Josh van der Flier. He was excellent with ball in hand. He made some good metres and he was one of his team’s try-scorers.
The scorers:
For Leinster:
Tries: Prendergast, McCarthy, Osborne, Van der Flier, Ringrose, Sheehan, Penalty Try, Byrne, Lowe 2
Cons: Prendergast 3, Byrne 2
For Harlequins: None
Yellow cards: Luke Northmore (Harlequins, 66′ – cynical play, deliberate knock-on); Jamie Benson (Harlequins, 75′ – cynical play, early tackle)
Teams:
Leinster: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Jamie Osborne, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris (captain), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Jack Conan, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter.
Replacements: 16 Gus McCarthy, 17 Jack Boyle, 18 Tadhg Furlong, 19 Ryan Baird, 20 Max Deegan, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Jordie Barrett.
Harlequins: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Tyrone Green, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Ben Waghorn, 11 Nick David, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Will Porter, 8 Alex Dombrandt (captain), 7 Will Evans, 6 Jack Kenningham, 5 Chandler Cunningham-South, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Titi Lamositele, 2 Jack Walker, 1 Fin Baxter.
Replacements: 16 Sam Riley, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 Irne Herbst, 20 George Hammond, 21 Danny Care, 22 Jamie Benson, 23 Luke Northmore.
Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)
Assistant referees: Kevin Bralley (France), Thomas Charabas (France)
TMO: Tual Trainini (France)
