Win shows Leinster 'character' says Ross Molony after Toulouse disappointment

Ross Molony says Leinster's bonus-point win over Connacht was a display of "character" following the team’s Champions Cup defeat last weekend.

Leo Cullen’s men, who will play their quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium next weekend, rounded off their BKT URC regular season with a 33-7 victory at the RDS.

The head coach rested most of the side that lost to Toulouse after extra time in London.

They move to the top of the table but can be overtaken by both Munster and Bulls if they win their games against Ulster and Sharks on Saturday.

"I’m really happy," said player of the match Molony, who will move to Bath at the end of the season.

"It was a big week for the club after the disappointment of last week and it showed today the character of the group to bounce back."

Along with Molony, Ed Byrne is set for a move to Cardiff, while Rhys Ruddock will retire when Leinster’s season comes to an end.

Molony (above) added: "It wasn’t just my last game at the RDS, you look at Rhys’ last game, Eddie’s last game, there’s a couple of lads who put in a serious shift over the week and the club made it special for us during the week and really delighted with how the day went."

The lock also paid tribute to the players who stepped up to the plate during the World Cup and Six Nations and left the team, temporarily at least, top of the table before the final games on Saturday.

"Obviously, it's such a great group of players that you have that amount of players that go to the international set-up and then there’s another group that step in," he told TG4.

"It’s important the likes of Rhys and Max Deegan are putting in shifts during those February / March months. I was delighted to see Rhys get such a big cheer when he was going off, yeah, it was brilliant."

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