O’Brien Picks Up Four Tries In Leinster Romp At The Rec

Jimmy O’Brien’s four-try salvo was the highlight of Leinster’s 10-try 64-7 win over Bath in their final Heineken Champions Cup pool game at the Recreation Ground.

Following up on a fortuitous opener from O’Brien, returning captain Jonathan Sexton converted tries from Josh van der Flier, Jordan Larmour, O’Brien and Ciaran Frawley for a 33-7 interval lead.

Taking advantage of Gabe Hamer-Webb’s yellow card, Andrew Porter, O’Brien and Hugo Keenan all touched down in quick succession as the visitors hit the half-century mark.

Leinster lost replacement Max Deegan to the sin bin, but crossed again through replacement Dan Sheehan and O’Brien, who became the first Leinster player to score four tries in a Champions Cup game.

Giving his reaction afterwards, head coach Leo Cullen said: “Jimmy scored his four tries but some of his defensive work as well, like the one he hunted down in the corner here was phenomenal, another one over on the far side, so it was a great game for Jimmy.

“That builds on last week (against Montpellier), sort of stepping up to this next level and it’s really pleasing. There was lots of good stuff in there from lots of individuals.

“The challenge for us is that we’ll have a slightly different group as we turn our attention to Cardiff next week in the URC and a number of guys will go away into Ireland camp.

“One of the positives for us of having so many games postponed is that now we have more games during the Six Nations window.

“It’s going to be a great opportunity for a number of guys who are probably sitting at home at the minute a little bit frustrated at how some of the tight selection calls have gone for them in recent weeks. It’s good to have this block of games to look forward to.”

Bath were keen to make an early impression, assisted by Leinster’s indiscipline. Nonetheless, a sustained attack, sparked by Caelan Doris’ burst, stressed the hosts to breaking point.

The actions of Larmour, who pulled Max Clark back, denied fellow winger O’Brien an opportunist try, but Bath soon lost Sam Underhill to a head injury and fell behind on the scoreboard.

A scrum was used by Jack Conan and van der Flier to put Bath on their heels and Keenan’s pass execution put O’Brien over on the left for a 17th-minute unconverted try.

A power surge at another scrum was backed up by a smooth lineout throw from Ronan Kelleher, with Sexton’s show-and-go splitting the defensive line.

When that did not quite work out, Leinster were patient in their build-up to van der Flier’s exquisite line onto Sexton’s ball for the second try, the skipper converting for a 12-0 lead.

An uncharacteristic spill by Doris caused a problem solved by a dominant Leinster scrum which led to a lightning strike for Keenan to slip Larmour through a narrow gap.

Once in behind, the Ireland winger shot past flat-footed defenders for a beautifully-taken try, converted by Sexton on the half hour mark.

Although O’Brien got back to cut down Charlie Ewels following an interception, centre Clark was on hand to finish the job for Bath’s only try, converted by Orlando Bailey.

Leinster’s response was ruthless. Sexton tickled an angled ball for O’Brien to score at his ease for the bonus point.

Then, the visitors’ pack ground out the yards for replacement Frawley to squeeze out the fifth try from another textbook line, Sexton’s conversion widening the margin to 26 points for half-time.

Hamer-Webb’s stray hand earned a yellow card and Leinster took advantage from Ryan Baird’s lineout take for Porter to stretch over in the 46th minute.

A sweeping move, oiled by pinpoint passing, put Larmour close to another try before Sexton smartly exploited a quick penalty, kicking over to the left where O’Brien collected for his hat-trick score.

A third try in five minutes arrived out of a Sexton chip, O’Brien and Garry Ringrose’s involvement, Robbie Henshaw’s offload and Keenan’s touchdown to make it 50-7.

Bath scrum half Ben Spencer’s cute move tempted Deegan into an off-the-ball obstruction for which he was binned.

In response, Keenan and O’Brien put thumping tackles in on Ruaridh McConnochie and Hamer-Webb to keep an injury-hit Bath at bay.

Jamison Gibson-Park slipped a sweet ball to Sheehan for the young hooker to speed home, fellow replacement Ross Byrne adding the extras from straight in front.

Leinster’s defence continued to frustrate Bath, and after Larmour latched onto a loose ball and hacked through, O’Brien won the race to deftly score his fourth try of a Heineken star-of-the-match performance.