United Rugby Championship: Leinster 38-14 Cardiff - Irish province remain unbeaten

Leinster remain unbeaten in the league and Europe this season after a bonus-point victory over Cardiff.

Despite missing their international stars, the hosts were relentless from start to finish, with Luke McGrath running in two tries.

There were also scores for Max Deegan, Brian Deeny, Max O'Reilly and Liam Turner.

Rory Thornton crossed on his 100th Cardiff appearance, with Kristian Dacey also on the scoresheet for the region.

Cardiff celebrated a dramatic comeback victory over the Irish province almost a year ago, but lightning did not strike twice as Dai Young's side were well beaten in Dublin.

Leinster are now undefeated in all 13 of their United Rugby Championship games this season and top the table, while Cardiff are 11th having lost four of their last five.

Leinster played a high-tempo game from the whistle, sending Cardiff's early tackle count through the roof.

Having dominated territory they opened the scoring inside 10 minutes with number eight Deegan bulldozing through the defence after a five-metre scrum.

The pressure kept coming from the men in blue, and scrum-half McGrath bagged their second after a well-worked tap-and-go saw him dive over on the angle.

Cardiff's first attacking opportunity eventually came but the driving maul off the five-metre line-out was bundled into touch.

That combined with a string of handling errors and the loss of full-back Rhys Priestland through injury made for a difficult opening period.

Leinster celebrated a third try when a sniping McGrath took advantage of a gaping hole around the ruck to cross on the half-hour mark.

Cardiff survived conceding a fourth just before half-time as they headed down the tunnel with a mountain to climb.

Cardiff scrum-half Lloyd Williams matched Taufa'ao Filise's club record with his 255th appearance

The bonus-point try was not too far away after the restart as Leinster once again bullied possession and looked threatening every time they entered Cardiff's 22.

Cardiff's task grew even steeper with Jason Harries shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on. Leinster had called for a penalty try, but referee Jaco Peyper was happy there had been sufficient cover on the wing.

The fourth try came soon after, Leinster's willing ball-carriers making metres for fun before Deeny powered over.

They continued to put the phases together and a lofty ball out wide sent O'Reilly over in the corner before Leo Cullen made a raft of changes.

Cardiff enjoyed a rare spell of possession when back to a full complement and began to threaten Leinster's tryline, but the defence repelled the initial attack.

The visitors kept chipping away and after a good carry from James Botham it was fitting that Thornton recycled the ball to crash over on his landmark appearance.

The visitors continued to finish strongly in the final 10 minutes, dominating the set-piece, with replacement hooker Dacey crossing in the dying minutes.

But it was Leinster who had the final say of the game, Turner picking up a loose ball to run in a sixth try and round off an impressive evening for the youngsters.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said: "I'm really pleased with the result, there are lots of parts that we could definitely be better on for sure, but that is what you expect from younger players.

"Credit to the senior guys for how they led... it was a good mix with lots of younger guys in around them.

"We were reasonably clinical in the first half in terms of taking some of the opportunities, which settled us down.

"The conditions were difficult out there so it was hard for Cardiff to chase the game when they were behind."

Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young said: "We have got to be better than that, we played against a quality team, but we just made it a lot easier for them.

"We got taught a lesson with basic skills, theirs were so much better than ours.

"It was a very similar story last weekend against Brive, the first 25 minutes were exactly the same, we are just giving teams all of the possession inside our 22 and they are going to end up scoring.

"We showed a bit of heart at the end to come back, but I don't think we can tap ourselves on the back, I am hugely disappointed."

Leinster: Chris Cosgrave; Max O'Reilly, Liam Turner, Ben Brownlee, Dave Kearney; Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath; Michael Milne, John McKee, Michael Ala'alatoa, Ross Molony, Brian Deeny, Rhys Ruddock (capt), Scott Penny, Max Deegan

Replacements: Tadgh McElroy, Marcus Hanan, Thomas Clarkson, James Culhane, Will Connors, Nick McCarthy, Charlie Tector, Aitzol King.

Cardiff: Rhys Priestland; Owen Lane, Rey Lee-Lo, Ben Thomas, Jason Harries; Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams; Brad Thyer, Kirby Myhill, Keiron Assiratti, Lopeti Timani, Seb Davies, Josh Turnbull (capt), James Botham, James Ratti

Replacements: Kristian Dacey, Corey Domachowski, Will Davies-King, Rory Thornton, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Ellis Bevan, Aled Summerhill, Matthew Morgan

Match officials

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)

Assistant: Joy Neville (Ireland) & Andrew Fogarty (Ireland)

TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)