Leinster 54-13 Edinburgh: Jekyll and Hyde curse strikes visitors once more

Leinster don’t do second string sides anymore. Despite resting practically all their frontliners, they were far too explosive for Edinburgh last night.

Jamie Heaslip, Isa Nacewa and Gordon D’Arcy will be retained for the European semi-final against Clermont Auvergne in Bordeaux on 29 April, but the rest were trying to force their way into the reckoning.

It certainly showed.

The phalanx of absent internationals like Brian O’Driscoll, Brad Thorn, Sean O’Brien, Cian Healy, Mike Ross, Rob Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald, Jonny Sexton and captain Leo Cullen will return for next Friday’s trip north to face Ulster. A fixture that will be of far more benefit to Michael Bradley than this comprehensive, eight tries to one, pounding.

Leinster have been like this all season – magnificent, regardless of the personnel. Most of these so-called reserves would be regulars in most other Pro 12 teams, including Bradley’s.

It started badly and got progressively worse.

Lee Jones simply doesn’t enjoy playing in Dublin. Knocked out during the Six Nations after a sickening head clash with Andrew Trimble, it was the bounce of the ball that caught him out after just seven minutes.

Leinster were awarded the initial penalty, which Fergus McFadden struck off the top of the upright. It rebounded into Jones’ path but the winger misread the situation, allowing Shane Jennings the easiest of touchdowns.

McFadden skewered the conversion, but Leinster were up and away.

Edinburgh did respond immediately with Nick De Luca strolling through a yawning gap for an equalising try.

Granted, Joe Schmidt had made 12 changes from last weekend’s destruction of the Cardiff Blues in the Heineken Cup, so there could have been some confusion, but it was a desperately soft try to concede.

Greig Laidlaw, unlike McFadden, found his range to put them ahead, but O’Driscoll’s understudy rarely fails to take an opportunity to perform when the great man is absent.

McFadden finished off a brilliant second try on 14 minutes to regain the lead. Isa Nacewa picked a sumptuous, arching attacking line before Dave Kearney powered past Tim Visser – no mean feat – and his offload sent McFadden scampering clear.

He hooked the conversion and when his fourth shot at goal missed the target moments later, Leinster were sitting on a meagre 10-7 lead as opposed to a possible 17-7.

When Sexton is rested, McFadden, not Nacewa nor Ian Madigan, kicks off the tee and he has won them plenty of games this season, but his statistics took a pounding last night. Still, to the 25-year-old’s credit, he nailed his fifth shot at goal approaching the half hour mark.

Leinster were far superior at scrum time – although referee Peter Fitzgibbon was last to notice – and around the breakdown, where Jennings was having a grand old time with Ross Rennie and Dave Denton sitting on the Edinburgh bench. Same goes for Jamie Heaslip.

The unrelenting intensity eventually told when Sean Cronin secured the victory before the interval with a barrelling try that opposite number Ross Ford would have been proud of. That said, the chasm between Stuart McInally and Matt Scott left an enticing invitation.

Cronin should have been emptied by one of them, probably Scott. Defence coach Billy McGinty must have been furious.

McFadden missed the conversion to bring his return to a miserable one from six, but 18-7 seemed like a comfortable lead.

The anvil came down early on Edinburgh in the second-half. Try number four was a thing of beauty. Leinster forwards hammered their Edinburgh counterparts to their line again, whereby Madigan’s perfectly weighted cross-field kick alluded Jones, landing in the welcome arms of Fionn Carr.

Laidlaw tried something similar moments later but Kearney did enough to deny Visser.

The last 30 minutes were child’s play from Leinster; Nacewa converting his own try after more brittle defending.

It became a rout as Leo Auv’va was at the vanguard of a driving maul for the sixth try.

They weren’t finished, saving a wonderful score until near the finish where every hand that touched the ball was homegrown. A turnover in the Leinster 22 saw Madigan release Noel Reid who dashed 50 metres upfield before releasing Brendan Macken.

The towering lock, Devin Toner, finished off the rout in injury-time.