Leinster 50 Dragons 15: Champions run riot against Ryan's men

The Guinness PRO14 champions made it five wins from five after running in eight tries at the Royal Dublin Society, five of them in a one-sided second half to turn the scoreboard ugly.

The Dragons struck through full-back Jordan Williams and wing Owen Jenkins but left the rain-lashed Irish capital with nothing to show for their efforts on a frustrating night.

It means the Dean Ryan era has begun with losses to Munster, Connacht and Leinster and wins against Zebre and Glasgow.

They were outmuscled in their two previous losses to Irish provinces but this time it was a combination of grunt and enterprise.

Leinster were without their World Cup contingent but their talented next generation, helped along by a smattering of older heads, play with the same attacking intent and are just as well-drilled.

The Dragons battled hard but lacked the snap of their hosts with a greasy ball, while they missed the dynamism of Ollie Griffiths.

The back row forward, star man against Glasgow, was forced to pull out in the warm-up after failing to recover from a blow to his right leg that hindered him throughout the week.

That led to Huw Taylor, hard-working but without Griffiths’ explosiveness, coming into the XV.

Leinster started the game on the front foot only to be denied by handling errors with a ball that was slippery courtesy of pre-match rain.

They were playing with enterprise yet it was their tight game that earned the lead in the ninth minute – a scrum penalty earned a five-metre lineout and then a close range score for tighthead Michael Bent.

The Dragons stayed calm and reduced the gap to 5-3 through the left boot of fly-half Sam Davies after a quarter when they had largely been on the defensive.

However, they swiftly shipped seven points after a peach of a Leinster try with good handling in a patient attack before young flanker Scott Penny put old winger Dave Kearney over with a nice inside ball.

This time fly-half Harry Byrne converted but the score was cancelled out by a comical score for Williams.

Last year the full-back scored a classic at the RDS, sidestepping his way through from halfway, but this was an odd one.

The Dragons were playing with penalty advantage in the 22 when an Ashton Hewitt offload hit Sam Davies on the knee, was then hacked on by wing Owen Jenkins and Williams slid over to make it 12-8 approaching the half hour.

No sooner were they right back in it than they were 11 points down after a lovely try but a controversial finish.

Leinster moved into the 22 with a slick move from a scrum and then hammered away from close range before Harry Byrne went over.

However, Richard Hibbard was impeded by Italian referee Andrea Piardi – it’s debatable whether the hooker would have stopped the fly-half but he was certainly blocked.

The Dragons reacted well, perhaps fuelled by a sense of injustice, but couldn’t add to their score and went into the break 19-8 down.

They needed to strike first but instead it was a bonus point score for the hosts with back-to-back penalties against Taylor putting Leinster five metres out.

The rain was hammering down but the lineout was solid and the drive came on to reward hooker Ronan Kelleher for hitting lock Ryan Baird.

If that was a no-frills score, the fifth was a thing of beauty.

Byrne picked out Kearney with a cross-kick and then it was returned to the winger after an inside ball and lovely handling by centre Conor O’Brien and Penny.

The fly-half’s punting was accurate but his radar was off from the tee and it was ‘just’ 29-8 with half an hour to go.

The scoreboard got messy courtesy of a quickfire brace on the hour with Maori All Blacks wing James Lowe and replacement scrum-half Hugh O’Sullivan going over, the first from calm attack in the face of a rush defence and the second after Sam Davies slipped trying to field a grubber kick.

The half-century came up when Jordan Williams dropped a pass straight into Lowe’s hands with the conversion bringing up the half century.

The visitors would have liked to hear the final whistle but instead it was a test of character for 15 minutes.

That they ended the game in Irish territory would have pleased Ryan, getting their reward with a well-worked try for wing Jenkins after good work by scrum-half Luke Baldwin and centre Adam Warren.

Leinster: J O’Brien, D Kearney, R O’Loughlin, C O’Brien, J Lowe, H Byrne, J Gibson-Park, P Dooley, R Kelleher, M Bent, D Toner (captain), R Baird, M Deegan, S Penny, C Doris. Replacements: J Tracy, M Milne, J Aungier, R Molony, W Connors, H O’Sullivan, C Frawley, C Kelleher.

Scorers: tries – M Bent, D Kearney (2), H Byrne, R Kelleher, J Lowe (2), H O’Sullivan; conversions – H Byrne (5)

Dragons: J Williams, O Jenkins, A Warren, C Edwards (T Morgan 48), A Hewitt, S Davies, R Williams (captain, L Baldwin 60); B Harris (J Reynolds 73), R Hibbard (E Shipp 70), L Brown (L Fairbrother 70), J Davies, M Screech (M Williams 65), H Keddie (J Benjamin 60), H Taylor, T Basham.

Scorers: tries – J Williams, O Jenkins; penalty – S Davies; conversion - S Davies.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)