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Leinster demolish Montpellier to break points record set in 2003
Leinster cruised past an under-strength Montpellier to resume their Heineken Champions Cup campaign with a thumping 89-7 bonus-point win at the RDS Arena.
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Despite some obvious rustiness, Leinster pocketed their bonus point by the 23rd minute and led 40-7 at half-time, with Masivesi Dakuwaqa mustering Montpellier’s only response.
Jack Conan, Jamison Gibson-Park, Ross Byrne, Ross Molony, Michael Ala’alatoa and Jordan Larmour all touched down in the opening 40 minutes, with the province’s first five conversions fired over by fly-half Byrne.
Byrne finished the match with 19 points and Jonathan Sexton kicked 10 as Leinster took their try haul to 13.
Heineken star-of-the-match Josh Van Der Flier (2), Jimmy O’Brien, Dan Sheehan (2), Conan and James Lowe shared out the second-half scores.
A wilting Montpellier played the final 13 minutes without Fijian flanker Dakuwaqa, who was sent off for a swinging arm tackle.
Disruption caused by Covid-19 meant this was Leinster’s first game in over a month and they quickly got down to business.
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Conan was in acres of space for the third-minute opener before O’Brien’s pass was batted backwards by Henry Thomas, allowing Gibson-Park to pick up an opportunist second try.
Montpellier’s teenage number 10 Louis Foursans then had a kick charged down by Ronan Kelleher, Byrne following up for a simple finish under the posts.
The only real concern for Leo Cullen’s men was on the injury front, as James Ryan pulled out beforehand with a minor muscle issue and Tadhg Furlong went off early on.
Second row Molony stretched over to make it 28-0, but Montpellier’s attack sparked into life from the restart.
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Boyne RFC product Karl Martin made the initial break and, with a knock-on ruled out, Dakuwaqa’s lunging 27th-minute effort from a ruck stood.
Marco Tauleigne was denied a second Montpellier try due to Guilhem Guirado’s foot in touch, before a terrific pass from Gibson-Park played in prop Ala’alatoa for Leinster’s fifth.
Livewire winger Larmour deservedly got on the scoresheet after 38 minutes, reaching over after a classy run by Caelan Doris.
"That's a proper scrum" 🥶
Leinster don't do ring rust ✌️#LEIvMHR | Credit: @btsportrugby pic.twitter.com/7XZ238CtkS
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 16, 2022
Just three minutes after the interval, Van Der Flier scored from a fine Conan offload and Byrne converted for a 40-point margin.
Kildare man O’Brien soon accelerated through for a superb solo score from 40 metres out, with Byrne again converting.
The newly-introduced Sexton added the extras to Van Der Flier’s second try, as the flanker gobbled up Vincent Giudicelli’s long lineout throw and sped clean through from Montpellier’s 10-metre line.
Into the final quarter, replacement hooker Sheehan galloped over from Lowe’s return offload for Sexton to convert.
Dakuwaqa was then dismissed for a loose challenge that made contact with Van Der Flier’s head.
Sheehan completed his brace from a lineout maul, and Leinster eclipsed their biggest European winning margin from 2003 – A 92-17 victory over Bourgoin – thanks to closing tries from Conan and Lowe.
Comments on RugbyPass
Who listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
40 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
40 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
39 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
40 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to comments