Young Leinster guns claim bonus win over Cardiff

Leinster's young guns helped to maintain the province's winning streak as they recorded a 42-24 bonus-point win over Cardiff.

Twelve of the match-day squad for the BTK URC leaders had 18 or fewer Leinster appearances under their belt but that dozen did include South Africa's RG Snyman and France's Rabah Slimani.

The hosts didn't have it all their own way but had enough class in reserve to see off a Cardiff side who hadn't won in Ireland since 2017.

Tries from John McKee, Jack Boyle, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Charlie Tector and Rob Russell, and six conversions from Ross Byrne, earned Leo Cullen's side an 18-point victory in front of 17,951 on a perfect day for rugby in the Dublin 4 venue.

The win put Leinster onto 57 points after 12 rounds, well on course for a home knock-out run in the play-offs.

Cardiff, under interim coach Gethin Jenkins with Matt Sherratt overseeing Wales' Six Nations campaign, took a bonus point and remain in the top-eight.

While Leinster were without most of their frontline internationals, they were still able to include senior players Jimmy O'Brien, Byrne, McGrath. Will Connors and Deegan, while Boyle, who made his Test debut last weekend against Wales, started at loosehead.

Cardiff would have taken most encouragement out of the opening exchanges, thwarting Leinster with a jackal penalty when the hosts looked like capitalising on nine phases inside the 22.

Leinster flashed the ball out the line but the visitors put in their first-time tackles and more than held their own, with a couple of handling errors from Cullen's side helping Cardiff's cause.

The opening score came in the 15th minute after Deegan claimed a five-metre lineout throw and McKee steered the maul over the line, with Byrne adding the extras.

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