Barrett grabs brace as Leinster steamroll Zebre to seal top spot
Player of the match Jordie Barrett recorded a brace of tries at the Aviva Stadium this evening as Leinster sealed first place in the United Rugby Championship regular season table with a 71-point demolition of Zebre Parma.
Eager to move on from the disappointment of their surprise European Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints in the same venue seven days earlier, Leinster registered 12 tries against their overwhelmed Italians counterparts to ensure they will remain on home soil for the duration of their time in the knockout phase of the URC.
Two days after being selected for his second successive Tour with the British & Irish Lions, Jack Conan was drafted into the eastern province’s starting line-up for this game.
He played an instrumental role in Leinster’s breakthrough score in the third minute as he broke impressively into the Zebre ‘22’ before offloading for Rónan Kelleher to dive over in the right-corner for a converted try.
Kelleher and Conan were two of six players in the Leinster starting line-up who will be part of the Lions squad for their upcoming journey to Australia – there were three more call-ups amongst the bench – and another of this sextet was a key creative force behind their next five-pointer at Irish Rugby HQ.
With less than five minutes gone on the clock, Josh van der Flier was picked out on the left-wing by Conan and the openside flanker proceeded to pass inside for scrum-half Luke McGrath to cross over for his fifth try of the current season.
While Prendergast was off-target with his latest conversion attempt, the 22-year-old fly-half did supply the extras to Ryan Baird’s 18th minute finish over the whitewash. This already had Leinster within sight of a bonus point and their fourth try inevitably arrived inside the second-quarter.
Restored to the first 15 after a much-discussed appearance as a second half replacement in the Northampton game last weekend, All Blacks star secured Leinster’s bonus point on 26 minutes before subsequently doubling his tally just past the half-hour mark.
There was enough time left on the clock in the opening period for James Lowe to claim a try that propelled the hosts into an unassailable 38-0 cushion and the gap between the teams became even larger when Barrett teed up Prendergast on the restart for a 44th minute seven-pointer.
Van der Flier also added his name to the scoresheet when he pounced on a loose ball deep inside the Zebre half moments later and this proved to be his final act of the contest.
Despite the fact there was still 30 minutes left to play, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen opted to introduce seven replacements at once.
Amongst the cohort to enter the fray on the stroke of 50 minutes was the fit-again James Ryan and Ciarán Frawley – who was making his 100th senior appearance for the province.
Supplementing an earlier five-pointer from full-back Jamie Osborne (one of Leinster’s best performers on the day), Frawley capped his milestone outing in the blue jersey with a try on 61 minutes that was made possible by fine build-up play from O’Brien.
15th in the URC table with just five wins to their name in the current term, Zebre finally opened their account 14 minutes from time when scrum-half Gonzalo Garcia supplied the finishing touches to an attacking move on the right-flank.
While this briefly halted their momentum, late tries from replacement James Culhane and Osborne (his second) saw Leinster opening up a nine-point buffer over Vodacom Bulls in the league standings – with one round of fixtures still left to play – in emphatic style.
Tries: J Barrett (2), J Osborne (2), R Kelleher, L McGrath, R Baird, J Lowe, S Prendergast, J van der Flier, C Frawley, J Culhane Cons: S Prendergast (6), C Frawley (2)
Tries: G Garcia
J Osborne; J O’Brien, G Ringrose (R Henshaw 50), J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast (C Frawley 50), L McGrath (J Gibson-Park 30-35 & 67); J Boyle (A Porter 50), R Kelleher (J McKee 50), T Clarkson (R Slimani 50); J McCarthy (J Ryan 50), D Mangan; R Baird, J van der Flier (J Culhane 50), J Conan.
J Trulla (A Fusco 54); S Gregory, F Paea, E Lucchin, S Gesi; G Montemauri (G Da Re 54), G Garcia; L Franceschetto (M Hasa 30), G Ribaldi (T Di Bartolomeo 48), J Pitinari (I Neculai 62); R Nasove (M Canali 59), L Krumov; B Stavile (F Drago 70), I Bianchi, D Ruggeri (G Ferrari 70).
S Grove-White (SRU).