Lowe lays waste to Connacht as Leinster let loose

The stage was set but Leinster had no intention of delivering any Good Friday derby drama.

Instead, the four-time European champions decided their best course of action was to kill this tie off before Connacht had a chance to get their bearings.

The two-legged round-of-16, for the first time in the Heineken Champions Cup, began last Friday night in Galway with Leinster getting out of the west with a 26-21 advantage and a sense that better was to follow.

Connacht, meanwhile, had fed off their home crowd and took advantage of a yellow card, to stay in the hunt in their first ever appearance in the knock-out stage of the tournament.

Andy Friend's side needed to produce something they hadn’t managed so far this season, while Leinster, who started with 12 regular Ireland players in their team could afford to play to par.

They did that, and more, and despite an early Connacht spell of pressure, and their progression to a quarter-final, was never really in doubt.

Connacht’s indiscipline didn’t help and Leinster, at various stages playing against 14 or 13 players due to sin-binnings and scrum regulations, ran in eight tries with man of the match James Lowe helping himself to four, which added up to an 82-41 aggregate score.

A crowd of 32,604 turned up on a beautiful, sunny evening in Dublin 4 and there were just 18 seconds on the clock when Luke Pearce awarded the visitors a penalty with Cian Prendergast sharpest at a breakdown under the Leinster posts.

Jack Carty tapped over and buoyed by the early score, Connacht kept the pressure up and forced another two penalties off the home defence.

Leinster couldn't get their hands on the ball but Carty missed an easy kick to give Friend’s side what would have been the aggregate lead shortly