Leinster and Ulster displays add to Andy Farrell's Ireland selection options

Leinster will grab the headlines because of their absolute thrashing of Glasgow, but Ulster deserve a lot of credit too for the way they dismantled Munster at the Kingspan stadium on Friday evening.

Both teams played fantastic, free-flowing rugby which will be hugely promising for Andy Farrell when he sits down to pick his squad for the New Zealand tour.

Comparisons can be drawn from the tries on show in both games. For Stewart Moore's first try against Munster, Ulster played through the hands of Stuart McCloskey in the number 12 jersey, and he pulled a pass out behind his forward runner to James Hume, who then tipped a fast pass on to Robert Balacoune, who accelerated into the gap between Chris Farrell and Andrew Conway.

Ulster were able to throw six passes before Munster put any contact on them. Alex Kendellan finally got to Ethan McIlroy before his offload became the seventh pass en route to a glorious try for Stewart Moore.

Leinster scored an unbelievable try from a kick receipt which also contained seven passes before Garry Ringrose took contact when crossing the try line. It started with a typical pull back pass from the middleman in a trio of Leinster forwards, Ross Byrne and Ringrose had touches before O’ Brien’s fast pass gave Frawley the space to find a longer pass to Jordan Larmour. Larmour did most of the damage on the wing before finding an inside pass to Ringrose for the try.

O'Brien and Hume both threw the all-important fast pass at the gain line which unlocked the defences on these occasions. Both players should find their way on to the plane to New Zealand. Even if it wasn’t an extended squad travelling due to the midweek games, both players have been in phenomenal form and have to be in Andy Farrell’s plans.