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Newport Gwent Dragons 22 Leinster 54
Leinster’s abundance of potential young stars showed their ruthless streak to run riot at the Newport Gwent Dragons and move to the top of the Guinness Pro12 table on Friday.
Jack Conan and Joey Carbery will have no doubt caught the eye of Ireland coach Joe Schmidt as they enjoyed the freedom of Rodney Parade to inspire this bonus-point 54-22 triumph.
A first-half double from Conan began the rout for Leo Cullen’s men before he turned provider for Jamison Gibson-Park to score a third.
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The Dragons put up some resistance when they scored through Adam Hughes, but Richardt Strauss earned the bonus-point moments later.
Leinster continued to heap more misery on the hapless Dragons and added further scores from James Tracy, Hayden Trigg and a late Luke McGrath brace.
The five-point win moves them above the Ospreys and into third with a home clash against Scarlets on the horizon.
The Leinstermen knew a fifth consecutive victory would move them into third place and above the Ospreys, who welcome Glasgow Warriors to South Wales on Sunday.
It looked an easy task on paper against a Dragons XV who had only won once in their previous six league matches – and that was a home triumph over Italian strugglers Benetton Treviso.
Joey Carbery made his first start for Leinster at full-back whilst Leo Cullen also had Irish internationals Fergus McFadden and Rhys Ruddock at his disposal.
But it was the hosts who had the better of the opening exchanges. South African lock Rynard Landman carried twice to good effect before a head injury to Jack Conan halted proceedings.
The flanker went off for a Head Injury Assessment, before the game was restarted with a scrum from which the Dragons earned a penalty, and outside-half Dorian Jones booted the hosts into a 3-0 lead.
But that proved the wake-up call Leinster needed, and some dazzling footwork from Carbery lit up a glum night at Rodney Parade.
The first-time full-back collected a wayward kick in his own half and jinked his way through the defensive line before sprinting into open field.
The try scorers were queuing up, but Carbery had the nouse to switch with Conan who went over to score a try which Ross Byrne improved.
Adam Byrne went close to extending the visitors’ lead on two occasions, but the second score came soon after, and it was Conan once again.
The destructive number 8 picked up at the base of a ruck and powered over the try-line from close-range to give Byrne an easy conversion to make it 14-3 after 23 minutes.
The Welsh side looked understandably devoid of confidence and bereft of attacking ideas as they coughed up possession again and again in the Leinster half.
Jones had the chance to close the gap before they regrouped in the changing rooms at half-time, but his long-range penalty struck the bar, and Leinster’s 11-point lead remained intact at the interval.
It took only two first-half minutes for the desperate Dragons to be cracked by Conan again. He exploited some lazy defending around the fringes of a ruck to burst clear from 30 metres out before sending the scoring pass to Gibson-Park, who ran-in unopposed for their third converted try.
The hosts finally clicked into gear in the 46th minute, but it was too little, too late. Former Wales Under-20 prospect Ollie Griffths made a half-break to advance into the Leinster 22.
The ball was recycled to Tyler Morgan, who used his deft handling skills to cushion a pass to Hughes, who sprinted over at the corner.
However their fire was quickly put out by another clinical Leinster attack. Gibson-Park sniped from the base of the scrum and offloaded to Carbery who collected his own chip ahead before being stopped short. The ball was put through the phases and Strauss barged over with his final act of the match to earn the bonus-point.
Tracey was next to get his name on the scoresheet before Trigg pounced on a comedy of Dragons errors.
Matthew Screech scored a consolation before McGrath put the icing on the 54-22 victory with two scores, before Sarel Pretorious scurried over.
Scoring sequence: 5 mins Jones pen 3-0, 10 mins Conan try R Byrne con 3-7, 23 mins Conan try Byrne con 3-14; half-time, Gibson-Park try Byrne con 21-3, Hughes try Jones con 21-10, Strauss try Byrne con 28-10, Tracy try 33-10, Screech try 33-15, Trigg try Byrne con 40-15, McGrath try Byrne con 47-15, McGrath try Byrne con 54-15, Pretorious try Jones con 54-22 (78 mins).
Dragons: C Meyer; A Hughes, T Morgan, J Dixon, P Howard; D Jones, T Knoyle; S Hobbs, E Dee, B Harris, N Crosswell, R Landman, O Griffiths, N Cudd, L Evans (capt). Replacements: R Buckley for Dee (73 mins), T Davies for Hobbs (55 mins), L Fairbrother for Harris (55 mins), M Screech for Landman (55 mins), H Keddie for Cud (68 mins), S Pretorius for Knoyle (54 mins), A O'Brien for Meyer (40 mins), A Warren for Dixon (58 mins).
Leinster: J Carbery; A Byrne, Z Kirchner, N Reid, F McFadden; R Byrne, J Gibson-Park; P Dooley, R Strauss (capt), M Bent, R Molony, M McCarthy, R Ruddock, P Timmins, J Conan. Replacements: J Tracy for Strauss (52 mins), E Byrne for Dooley (52 mins), M Ross for Bent (52 mins), H Triggs for McCarthy (53 mins) , M Deegan for Timmins (5 mins), L McGrath for Gibson-Park (53 mins), C Marsh, B Daly for McFadden (65 mins).
Referee: Marius Mitrea.
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