So long without a game through various cancellations, Leinster were again denied a contest of any real meaning in the bright winter sunshine in Dublin.

Having last kicked a ball in anger 36 days ago, Leo Cullen's side found themselves up against a Montpellier team who went out of their way to live up to the old cliché about French teams on the road, turning up out of obligation rather than desire.

Sitting fourth in the Top14 and retaining just one player who started their win over Biarritz after Christmas, Philippe Saint-Andre's second string had neither the talent nor inclination to stay with the home side, who ran in 13 tries.

Cullen, who on Friday issued a lengthy plea to get the EPCR to have another think about the call to deem the cancelled match in round two as a 28-0 loss, returned to the subject in his programme notes.

"We’re still hopeful that the decision can be looked at again," he wrote.

But what had taken the stroke of a pen to achieve in December was somewhat nullified in just 25 minutes of action in front of 5,000 fans at the RDS with Leinster securing the bonus point in that time.

Cullen could have been forgiven for thinking that the five weeks without a match was stretching into a sixth, so poor was the French resistance.

Montpellier, even though they were hit with their own Covid cases, have very little to be proud of here.

But the head coach will have been glad to dust off the cobwebs in this training run-out, which did come at the cost of an early injury to prop Tadhg Furlong. The Six Nations starts in three weeks’ time.

Leinster had won all 15 of their last home pool games by an average of 26 points and this hammering broke the record for their biggest ever victory in Europe, that being a 92-17 win over Bourgoin in 2004.

By the time Furlong had departed Leinster had already broken through the opposition defence three times and Jack Conan’s try was a routine effort in the corner.

The lively Jimmy O’Brien was causing trouble on the left flank and his persistence set up Jamison Gibson-Park for Leinster's second try in the ninth minute, the scrum-half fastest to a loose ball.

Five minutes later, Ross Byrne, preferred to start over replacement Johnny Sexton, dotted down under the posts after Ronán Kelleher blocked down out-half Louis Foursans' ill-judged kick.

Ciaran Frawley, Jordan Larmour and Garry Ringrose were given the time and space to run clever lines and offload at will and the scores came thick and fast.

Josh Murphy, a late replacement for captain James Ryan, pulled before the game as a precautionary measure for a "slight" hamstring issue, got over for the bonus point in the 25th minute.

The hosts switched off momentarily after that and former Boyne, Leinster and Ireland underage player Karl Martin was involved as a raid down the right flank ended in wing forward Masivesi Dakuwaqa getting the ball over the line.

The visitors had another score disallowed a few minutes later but Leinster swept back upfield and strung together five offloads in one move to set up field position from which replacement Michael Ala’alatoa brushed aside a weak tackle for try number five.

Larmour, who didn't play any part in the autumn internationals, got his name on the scoresheet before the break, finishing off in the corner. Byrne, who had landed all the extras to that point, just missed the conversion.

Josh van der Flier grabbed a brace of tries within 11 minutes of the second half, the scores coming either side of a well-taken effort for O’Brien, who got his second European try.

By the time of Van der Flier’s second, Ireland captain Johnny Sexton, Dan Sheehan, Rhys Ruddock and Cian Healy were on the field and there was no respite for Montpellier, who have now lost their last 10 away pool matches.

As if ticking a checklist, the listless French outfit were reduced to 14 men when try-scorer Dakuwaqa was shown a red card by Wayne Barnes with 12 minutes to play.

The Fijian was dismissed for a swinging elbow on man of the match Van der Flier, who was lucky the flanker didn’t make a better connection to the Ireland player’s jaw.

Sheehan barged over for his second from the resulting penalty and lineout maul and Leinster hit the 70-point mark.

More good play by Ringrose set Conan up for his second as Montpellier decided not to even bother attempting to make what could be described as a tackle.

James Lowe, a half-time replacement ended the scoring with a try in over-time, with Sexton kicking his fifth conversion to end Montpellier's misery.

Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose (capt), Ciaran Frawley, Jimmy O'Brien; Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong; Ross Molony, Josh Murphy; Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan

Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Ed Byrne, Michael Ala'alatoa, Rhys Ruddock, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Johnny Sexton, James Lowe.

Montpellier: Axel Bevia; Pierre Lucas, Thomas Darmon, Karl Martin, Josua Vici; Louis Foursans, Gela Aprasidze; Mikheil Nariashvili, Guilhem Guirado (capt), Henry Thomas; Tyler Duguid, Mickael Capelli; Masivesi Dakuwaqa, Florian Verhaeghe, Marco Tauleigne.

Replacements: Vincent Giudicelli, Robert Rodgers, Titi Lamositele, Alexandre Becognee, Aubin Eymeri, Paul Vallée, Nico Janse van Rensburg, Zach Mercer.

Referee: Wayne Barnes