Jordan Larmour scored a hat-trick of tries at the RDS last night as Leinster moved to within one point of Glasgow Warriors at the summit of the United Rugby Championship table with a clinical bonus-point victory at the expense of Ospreys.

Leading by just seven at the midway stage in the contest, Leinster amassed an impressive 40 points without reply after the restart — including a brace of finishes from Larmour to complement his opening score in the 27th minute of the first half.

Despite having a Champions Cup final to look forward to against Toulouse at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday week, Leinster’s head coach Leo Cullen picked a strong team for the visit of the Welsh region to Ballsbridge. The Wicklow native initially selected ten players that started their tense European semi-final triumph over Northampton Saints at Croke Park seven days earlier and this number increased to 11 when Josh van der Flier was drafted into the back row to replace Will Connors shortly before kick-off.

Should the eastern province manage to seal top spot in the standings at the end of the regular URC season, they would be guaranteed to have home advantage for each game they play in the knockout rounds of the competition. Glasgow remain in the driving seat after picking up two points away to the Bulls in Pretoria yesterday afternoon, but even though their arch rivals Munster are also firmly in the mix, it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Leinster could yet claim first place in the final URC table.

Ronan Kelleher and Jimmy O’Brien were promoted to the first 15 after their appearances off the bench in the Northampton game and they combined to good effect before the latter raced in from 70 metres out for Leinster’s third-minute breakthrough try.

This was the perfect start for the Blues on a warm night in the capital and their lead was subsequently enhanced when Ross Molony capitalised on excellent approach work from Caelan Doris to power over for his first Leinster try since January 2022.

Ross Byrne added his second bonus strike of the evening to move Leinster 14 points clear, but this advantage was sensationally wiped out by the visitors before the opening quarter had fully elapsed. Firstly, outside centre Owen Watkin got Ospreys up and running with a converted try on 14 minutes after No 8 Morgan Morris had broken free from an attacking scrum. Fly half Dan Edwards then made no mistake from the straightforward conversion that followed this score and he was the creative force behind their equalising score moments later. His audacious cross-field kick towards the right wing landed in the arms of Luke Morgan and, with TMO Andrew McMenemy adjudging that Ciaran Frawley had tackled his opponent in the air beyond the Leinster line, a penalty try was awarded.

The Leinster full back was sent to the sin bin for this infraction, but his team-mates managed to regain momentum in his absence. When Ospreys full back Max Nagy failed to control a grubber kick by Byrne on 27 minutes, Larmour was on hand to supply the finishing touches for his seventh try of the season.

Byrne once again added the extras off the kicking tee and, while they came under pressure in the tail end of the opening period, Leinster ultimately brought a 21-14 cushion into the interval.

While the tie itself was still delicately poised, the hosts were nevertheless within sight of a bonus point upon the resumption. This is perhaps what fuelled Leinster’s explosive start to the second half, which was less than a minute old when they scored their fourth try of the proceedings.

Like his second-row partner Molony, South African native Jason Jenkins is set to bring his time at Leinster to a close in the coming weeks. It is anticipated the one-time South Africa international will have a big part to play in the business end of the season, however, and he burst over the Ospreys line after O’Brien had once again made significant metres in attack.

Cullen gradually started to alter his line-up as the third quarter progressed, but it was a pair of starters who linked up for Leinster’s fifth try in the 54th-minute. After finding space deep inside the opposition’s half, Robbie Henshaw picked out Larmour on the right-hand side and the elusive wing showed a clean pair of heels to the Ospreys defence before doubling his tally for the game.

Even though this effectively placed the final outcome beyond any doubt, Leinster were in no mood to drop their performance levels during the closing-quarter of a game that was played in front of 15,750 spectators.

Supplementing Larmour’s hat-trick score on 77 minutes — and six points from the boot of Frawley and Jamie Osborne, Charlie Nagatai and Tommy O’Brien also then crossed to round off a comprehensive victory for Leinster.