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Leinster crush sorry Gloucester 57-0 in one-sided Heineken Champions Cup rout

Updated / Saturday, 17 Dec 2022 01:02
James Lowe evades Billy Twelvetrees' tackle to open the scoring
James Lowe evades Billy Twelvetrees' tackle to open the scoring

Leinster tore Gloucester's second string apart at the RDS to claim their second bonus-point victory in the space of a week.

The four-time Heineken Champions Cup winners ran in nine unanswered tries against the underpowered visitors in a horribly one-sided contest that did further damage to the reputation of this competition.

Ronan Kelleher helped himself to a first-half double with James Lowe, Josh van der Flier and James Ryan also crossing to give Leinster a 31-0 lead at the interval.

Luke McGrath grabbed the first of three second-half scores, with Lowe registering his 50th Leinster try, while Johnny Sexton played 20 minutes on his return from injury as the hosts coasted to a 12th win in a row.

Replacement Jordan Larmour and Caelan Doris rounded off the scoring late on.

It was an impressive performance from the Leinster forwards, with Andrew Porter tormenting Ciaran Knight at scrum time and Doris showing he is equally adept at blindside flanker as he is at No 8.

Charlie Ngatai and Hugo Keenan were the standouts in a backline that was nowhere close to its ruthless best, but it mattered little on a night where the only uncertainty was what the winning margin would at the final whistle.

With a team jam-packed with 14 internationals, on a 10-game winning streak, against a selection of fringe players, there was an inevitability to this match before it even kicked off.

Thursday’s team announcement was met with much frustration, turning this game into a Christmas turkey shoot for Leinster.

Exactly 11 months since they ran in 13 tries against Montpellier’s reserves, Leo Cullen’s side found themselves faced the same scenario.

Having taken maximum points from their opening game against Bordeaux-Bègles, Gloucester head coach George Skivington made 13 changes ahead of an important block of Premiership fixtures, safe in the knowledge that even a heavy beating would not end their hopes of reaching the knockout stages.

But while his first-teamers may be well rested ahead of next weekend’s game against Leicester Tigers, the manner of this defeat will surely hit the confidence levels of his fringe players.

Not only were Gloucester understrength, they were also error-strewn and ill-disciplined. They were dominated at scrum time, conceded a host of daft penalties and free-kicks, had two players sin-binned and were even caught offside from a restart.

They held out for just 12 minutes. Leinster were lacklustre early on, squandering two entries into the Gloucester 22, but they opened the scoring courtesy of a brilliant breakdown steal by Doris. The flanker tore downfield and flung a pass out wide to Lowe, who sprinted in from 40 metres.

The Leinster maul then got to work, carving out two tries in seven minutes for Van der Flier and Kelleher, who had another chalked off after his short throw to Luke McGrath didn’t go the required five metres.

It was patchy at times but Leinster did finish the first half with a flourish, striking twice after Henry Walker was sin-binned for a head clash with Van der Flier.

Ryan barged over after 12 phases of forward pressure and Kelleher bagged his second from the final play when he broke off a maul and went over untouched. Byrne converted to make 31-0 at the interval.

The tries continued to rain down in the second half. McGrath dummied his way over on 45 minutes after a third successive scrum penalty, which resulted in a yellow card for Ciaran Knight, and Lowe had his second following a big carry by replacement Joe McCarthy and good awareness by Doris.

The biggest cheer of the night greeted Sexton’s introduction and it was fellow returnee Larmour who scored the final try, the wing taking Dan Sheehan's offload to bring up the half-century.

Sexton shanked the conversion but he made amends with a brilliant try-saving tackle on Jacob Morris to deny Gloucester a late consolation.

The Leinster maul had the final say, Doris touching down with Sexton's conversion bringing the curtain down on a complete mismatch.

Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O'Brien, Garry Ringrose (capt), Charlie Ngatai, James Lowe; Ross Byrne, Luke McGrath; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Michael Ala'alatoa; Ross Molony, James Ryan; Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.

Replacements: Cian Healy for Ala'alatoa (ht), Dan Sheehan for Kelleher (48), Ed Byrne for Porter (48), Joe McCarthy for Ryan (48), Jordan Larmour for O’Brien (53), Max Deegan for Van der Flier (54), Johnny Sexton for Byrne (59), Jamison Gibson-Park for McGrath (59).

Gloucester: Lloyd Evans; Alex Hearle, Giorgi Kveseladze, Billy Twelvetrees, Jacob Morris; George Barton, Ben Meehan (capt); Harry Elrington, Henry Walker, Ciaran Knight; Freddie Thomas, Arthur Clark; Jake Polledri, Jack Clement, Albert Tuisue.

Replacements: Seb Atkinson for Barton (10), Kyle Moyle for Hearle (21), Alex Craig for Clark (34), Seb Blake for Walker (45), Kirill Gotovtsev for Knight (53), Harry Taylor for Tuisue (57).

Referee: Luc Ramos (FFR)

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