Leinster 76 Zebre 5
After the heartache and humiliation of the home loss to Northampton in the Champions Cup the previous week, it was back to the bread-and-butter URC series for Leinster on Saturday where they secured top spot by annihilating Zebre Parma at the Aviva Stadium.
Leo Cullen has been on the back foot since the semi-final failure but his side showed their mettle by going out and scoring 12 tries which guarantees them to be first seed with a home run in the play-offs as long as they remain in the competition.
On a balmy May afternoon in front of a crowd of 14,681, Leinster put their horror week behind by scoring five tries in the first half hour.
Rónan Kelleher, Luke McGrath and Ryan Baird nailed the first three before center Jordie Barrett got in for the bonus-point try in the 31st minute.
Simone Gesi of Zebre and Leinster’s Jimmy O’Brien in action at the Aviva.
The New Zealander added a second shortly after to underline the mistake in not playing him from the start the previous week in the primary competition where he only got the last 20 minutes to show his worth.
James Lowe dotted down for the sixth in the corner as Leinster went in with a 38-0 to the good with the visitors lucky to get nil.
Barret fed Prendergast after the break for the outhalf to touchdown under the posts and then inevitably Josh Van der Flier got in for a try - the eighth, and with half an hour to go, Cullen emptied the bench to give everyone a run.
Barrett was again the orchestrator for Jamie Osborne to get the ninth and sub Ciaran Frawley added the tenth within a minute.
The Italians eventually got their side of the scoreboard ticking over with scrum-half Gonzalo Garcia scrambling over 66 mins into the game.
Replacement Leinster back row James Culhane made it 11 tries for his team before Osborne ended the try-fest in overtime.
Leinster host Glasgow in the final regular season game this weekend before setting their eyes on the only silverware available to them - the URC title down the line.
Leinster: J Osborne; J O'Brien, G Ringrose, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, L McGrath; J Boyle, R Kelleher, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, D Mangan; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan (capt) Replacements: J McKee (for Kelleher 50), A Porter (Boyle 50), R Slimani (Clarkson 50), J Ryan (McCarthy 50), J Culhane (Van der Flier 50), J Gibson-Park (McGrath 29-35 and 66), C Frawley (Prendergast 50), R Henshaw (Ringrose 50).
SCORERS: Leinster Tries: Kelleher, McGrath, Baird, Barrett (2), Lowe, Prendergast, Van der Flier, Osborne (2), Frawley, Culhane Cons Prendergast (6), Frawley (2)
Zebre Try: Gacia.
