Leinster machine marches on
EUROPEAN CUP REPORT: Leinster collected another bonus-point success in Pool One.
They comfortably defeated Lyon 42-14 at The RDS on Sunday afternoon, to make it a record nine pool match wins in a row.
The five Euro wins in 2020 goes with the 10 Pro14 victories this year.
* Did you miss any of the action? To recap all the drama, CLICK HERE
The hosts dominated the early proceedings and scored a try after 10 minutes when Ross Byrne played a lovely cross-field kick to James Lowe who popped inside to Dave Kearney for the simple score.
Leinster were 16-0 up after 16 minutes – when Josh van der Flier collected the offload from Luke McGrath and dotted down after the line-out set up another superb attacking platform.
The home side was briefly pegged back, after attempting some neat passing, but it was intercepted by No.8 Virgile Bruni and he sprinted clear to give Lyon a first try of the match.
Dave Kearney then went over for his second of the day but Lyon responded yet again as Hendrik Roodt burrowed a way over the try line, making it 21-14 at the interval.
Leinster dominated the second period with Heineken Man of the Match Max Deegan getting over on 53 minutes after the Irish province stretched the Lyon line that was a man light after Felix Lambey received a yellow card.
Sean Cronin and Andrew Porter also crossed the whitewash in the final 15 minutes to put further gloss on a commanding result that puts Leinster further clear in Pool One and in pole position for the No.1 seed.
They travel to Benetton next week while Lyon will host Northampton.
The scorers
For Leinster:
Tries: Kearney 2, Van der Flier, Deegan, Cronin, Porter
Cons: Byrne 6
For Lyon:
Tries: Bruni, Roodt
Cons: Pélissié 2
Yellow cards: Ethan Dumortier (Lyon, 31), Felix Lambey (Lyon, 48), Xavier Mignot (Lyon, 63)
Teams:
Leinster: 15 Jordan Larmour, 14 Dave Kearney, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 James Lowe, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Max Deegan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 5 Scott Fardy (captain), 4 Devin Toner, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 James Tracy, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Seán Cronin, 17 Peter Dooley, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Caelan Doris, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Ciarán Frawley, 23 Rob Kearney
Lyon: 15 Toby Arnold, 14 Xavier Mignot, 13 Ethan Dumortier, 12 Thibaut Regard (captain), 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Jean-Marcellin Buttin, 9 Jonathan Pélissié, 8 Virgile Bruni, 7 Etienne Oosthuizen, 6 Killian Geraci, 5 Hendrik Roodt, 4 Martial Rolland, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Badri Alkhazashvili, 1 Hamza Kaabèche
Replacements: 16 Jeremie Maurouard, 17 Raphael Chaume, 18 Kévin Yaméogo, 19 Tanginoa Halaifonua, 20 Felix Lambey, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Joris Moura, 23 Josua Tuisova
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Assistant referees: Gwyn Morris (Wales), Mike English (Wales)
TMO: Ian Davies (Wales)
Report by @ChampionsCup
