Leinster cleanse palette with record URC scoreline against Zebre

Leinster will be top seeds for the United Rugby Championship play-offs after a comfortable 76-5 win over Zebre at the Aviva Stadium.

With nine of their 2025 British and Irish Lions on duty, Leo Cullen’s men returned to the scene of last week’s deflating Investec Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints.

James Lowe’s 66th try in 89 appearances gave Leinster a 38-0 half-time lead, adding to scores from Ronan Kelleher, Luke McGrath, Ryan Baird, and Jordie Barrett (2).

While Gonzalo Garcia’s 65th-minute effort was Zebre’s only response, Sam Prendergast, Josh van der Flier, Jamie Osborne (2), Ciaran Frawley, and James Culhane took the hosts’ try haul to 12.

Two minutes in, Jack Conan broke impressively and offloaded for fellow Lions call-up Kelleher to finish powerfully. Prendergast kicked the first of his 17 points.

McGrath took Leinster into double figures, following up on a Van der Flier surge. Baird barged over to make it 19-0, midway through the half.

Player-of-the-match Barrett bagged Leinster’s bonus point in the 24th minute, a slick first-phase move seeing Prendergast play him in from a few metres out.

Barrett crashed over again on the half-hour mark, via a pass from blood replacement Jamison Gibson-Park. Prendergast tagged on his fourth conversion.

Nice hands put Lowe over before the interval, and Prendergast started the second half’s try-scoring by finishing off a pacy length-of-the-field counter attack.

The tricky Jacopo Trulla tried his best to inspire Zebre, but when a high ball bounced loose off Scott Gregory’s hand, Van der Flier capitalised to complete his brace.

A full 52 points to the good, Leinster brought on seven replacements. Osborne soon collected Barrett’s precise kick to cruise in at the corner.

Zebre prop Juan Pitinari briefly threatened before replacement Frawley’s fine finish from 42 metres out saw him crown his 100th Leinster cap.

Simone Gesi’s weaving run had Leinster backpedalling, and scrum-half Garcia squeezed over from a metre out to get the Italians on the board.

However, Culhane and Osborne added two late tries at the other end, with the 71-point winning margin a new URC record for Leinster.