Leinster are eleven games unbeaten as they raced in seven tries in an empathic interprovincial derby showing at the RDS over Connacht this evening.

Thirteen wins on the spin for the men in Blue, another quality outing for them as they look the team to beat in the competition, a brace for Jordan Larmour while Liam Turner, Robbie Russell, Brian Deeny, Ryan Baird, Josh Van Der Flier all crossed the whitewash.

A double blow for Connacht along with suffering defeat in the tie try scorer David Hawkshaw looked to have picked up an ankle injury which saw him being driven away off the field, they will hope it is nothing too serious, they slip to 13th in the table after the defeat.

It did not take long for Leinster to break the deadlock, the hosts winning a lineout inside the Connacht 22, a strong maul resulted in a quick passage of play which saw the returning Johnny Sexton offload to Liam Turner who raced over to score the opening try inside two minutes, the skipper failed to add the extras from the tee as Connacht found themselves with a back to the wall early on.

Having won the lineout just before their opening score, Leinster found themselves making errors with Darragh and Niall Murray both intercepting to prevent another offensive charge, Connacht found themselves coming back into the game and started to get ground on the Leinster half.

In similar fashion to how they conceded early on they would get over for their opening try after 16 minutes, David Hawkshaw back to haunt his old team as he got over the whitewash solid in the contact to evade the oncoming tacklers, a well worked move from their lineout, Jack Carty made no mistake with the conversion for a 7-5 lead.

The lead would not lost long however, Sexton driving Connacht back with a penalty into touch, their forwards came into the game to apply pressure close to the line, Brian Deeney on his first start of the season got his 6 foot 7 frame over for their second try, a dramatic opening 23 minutes in the RDS with Sexton nailing the second conversion attempt for a 12-7 lead.

Leinster’s third try just after the half hour mark summed up the luck Connacht are having this season, Jordan Larmour made a sensation run to skip past the Connacht defence before offloading to Jimmy o’Brien to burst clear down the channel, he kicked in behind to keep the attack going as he was forced out of play, Carrty was last man back but lost his footing with the ball bouncing off him allowing Larmour to gather and dot over for the third try to make it 19-7 as Sexton found his form once more.

Connacht would hit back again in a high scoring action packed opening half, another failed Leinster lineout saw Connacht get possession late on in the half, they edged forward trying to get a second try, just held shy of the line Caolin Blade opted to go wide and Tom Farrell slid his way over to score their second try of the game, another ex Leinster man on the board for Connacht, Carty failed to add the extras after he miskicked the conversion attempt, with Connacht seven down at the interval 19-12.

Larmour added the bonus point four minutes after the restart, his second try of the game and another moment of brilliance by the Leinster winger, all coming off their forwards trying to bulldoze their way over the line, Jamison Gibson-Park spotted Larmour out wide, he did brilliantly well to cut inside and dive over the line as Connacht just could not defend against him, Sexton missing again from the tee as they moved 12 points clear 24-12.

Connacht were reduced to 14 men in the 51st minute as Carty was shown a yellow card, Leinster were awarded a penalty Gibson-Park tapped and went and was tackled immediately by Carty, the referee was quick to show the fly-half to the sin bin. Sexton found touch with the resulting penalty, but Connacht were able to clear their lines and not concede immediately as Ronan Kelleher was penalised for being off his feet.

It was a strong showing by the visitors with only 14 men on the field to keep the score the same, when Carty came back on they looked much stronger and almost had a try through Byron Ralston but he was tackled well by Jimmy O’Brien to stop them in their tracks.

Their defence did start to show signs of struggle Charlie Ngatai and Caelan Dorris have both made massive carries, before they would threaten further shy of the line a try was coming and the pass wide to Rob Russell saw them put the game beyond doubt in the 68th minute, leading 29-12 as substitute Harry Bryne missed the conversion.

Momentum was all with Leinster and Ryan Baird showed his pace to race in for try number six after 71 minutes, Ngatai skipped past the challenges and Baird gathered to race through showing immense pace for a man of his stature on the field, Byrne got the conversion over to move them ahead 36-12.

They ended the game in style as Josh Van Der Flier showed his pace to race clear down the left wing Larmour and Russell all key in the build up but the flanker showed his attacking prowess to dot over to move Leinster 41-12 ahead as Byrne failed with a difficult kick from the tee.