Larmour Scores Twice As Leinster Wear Down Connacht

BKT United Rugby Championship leaders Leinster began the New Year in familiar fashion with a 41-12 bonus point win over Connacht at the RDS.

Tries from David Hawkshaw and Tom Farrell had Connacht just 19-12 behind at half-time, with Liam Turner, Brian Deeny and Jordan Larmour crossing for Leinster.

Larmour, Rob Russell, Ryan Baird and Josh van der Flier made it a seven-try victory for Leo Cullen’s men, whose only real worry was losing captain Jonathan Sexton to a facial injury.

Asked about the injury afterwards, Cullen said: “Johnny’s okay, fair old whack on the cheek. We’ll see tomorrow, he’ll get it tested. Let’s wait and see, we’ll have a better idea tomorrow.”

Connacht were missing three of their Ireland internationals with illness ruling out Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen, while Bundee Aki was rested due to Ireland player management.

Turner took a lovely line in the second minute as influential centre Charlie Ngatai and Sexton combined to put him over to the right of the posts. Sexton missed the conversion.

The Murray brothers, Darragh and Niall, both pinched lineouts and Connacht’s improving play was rewarded when Hawkshaw broke through tackles from Sexton and Russell for a fine 16th-minute score, converted by Jack Carty.

Leinster turned to their powerful pack, young lock Deeny cleverly grasping his opportunity to spring over from a close-in ruck. Sexton added the extras for a 12-7 lead.

On the half hour mark, Ngatai ripped the ball back in a tackle, Sexton invited Larmour forward and the sidestepping winger left both Shamus Hurley-Langton and Tiernan O’Halloran for dead.

He linked with Jimmy O’Brien and Leinster got a slice of luck when Carty fell as O’Brien’s kick bobbled through, and Larmour was there to take full advantage, making it 19-7.

Connacht pulled back five of those points before the break, their forwards carrying up close and Carty slickly sent Farrell over but the skipper miscued the conversion.

Larmour bagged a 44th-minute bonus point from an inviting Jamison Gibson-Park pass, while Connacht disappointingly lost Hawkshaw to injury in the process.

Carty was soon sent to the sin bin for being offside from a quickly-taken Leinster penalty, although Andy Friend’s side dug deep in response.

They coped well while down to 14 men, showing their resilience as the fast-breaking Caolin Blade ignited their attack again and the wily Jarrad Butler thwarted a Leinster maul.

Sexton had to be replaced after head-on-head contact when tackling Butler which could have seen him carded. In his absence, Leinster made sure to finish with a flourish.

Cormac Foley and Ngatai provided the assists for Russell and Baird to go over respectively, with Russell used the replacement scrum half’s scooped pass to take his URC tally for the season to seven tries in seven games.

Ngatai dummied his way past halfway and laid the ball off for Baird to thunder over from 35 metres out, capping what was an excellent performance from the 23-year-old forward.

With reshuffles required in the hosts’ back row and back-line and Connacht’s bench used up before Butler had to go off injured, van der Flier was sent out to the wing for a 75th-minute scrum.

Larmour and Russell ran hard and released the World Rugby Player of the Year who showed his own burst of pace – in the dying embers of the match – to make the left corner ahead of Farrell, adding some late gloss to the scoreline.

It was a much tougher test for the table toppers than the final outcome suggests. 21-year-old Connacht lock Darragh Murray certainly made his mark on his first URC start, and try-scoring centre Farrell also stood out.

Leinster’s best on show was undoubtedly Larmour, a deserving winner of the URC player-of-the-match honour given his searing pace earned him two tries and helped to create two other scores.