Leinster’s star-studded squad proved too strong for Bristol Bears on Sunday night as the Irish side came into their own in the second half at Ashton Gate to win 35-12 in the opening round of the Investec Champions Cup.
Max Lahiff scored for Bristol and Jordan Larmour for Leinster in the first half, but the URC side’s superior bench told after the break as Sam Prendergast recorded a brace to go with 10 points from the kicking tee and debutant Jordie Barrett also dotted down. Gabriel Ibitoye added a consolation try for the hosts who simply ran out of firepower.
READ MORE: Bristol Bears 12-35 Leinster LIVE: Highlights and reaction from Champions Cup opener
Leinster arrived at Ashton Gate with 22 of their 23-player matchday squad internationals, with All Black star Barrett amongst those replacements and the difference in depth eventually told.
It took 30 minutes of the too sides throwing jabs and feeling each other out before the game exploded into life on the half hour mark. Bristol had been hitting the Irish side with hurtful body shots in the scrum with Ellis Genge to the fore and with their driving maul, to force referee Pierre Brousset to issue a warning to Leinster following a waterfall of penalties.
After 28 minutes the pressure on the visitors told with hooker Ronan Kelleher bringing down a maul that looked to be heading towards the try line. Moments later, Max Deegan followed his teammate to the sin bin after sticking out a leg to trip Fitz Harding as the Bears captain broke into the open field following an offload from Harry Randall. Bears boss Pat Lam may be wondering why there was no consideration of a penalty try. But the wait for an opening try was short as Benhard Janse van Rensburg, who was forced to move from centre to fly-half for the first time in his Bristol career following an early rib injury to AJ MacGinty, kicked the ball into the corner for a 5m lineout.
Harry Thacker threw to the back pod for Santi Grondona to pick the ball out of the rainy night sky and drop it down to Bill Mata on the charge. The number eight was stopped inches short of the line but Lahiff transferred his gym and scrum power into a short-range blast over the whitewash. Janse van Rensburg converted.
Leinster’s response to going two men down was remarkably to open up and the Bears blinked under the pressure as Rich Lane failed to take a clever chip kick into the hosts’ 22 and the ball bounced fortuitously into the arms of Lamour to touch down under the posts without a finger laid on him.
The second half descended into a scrum battle with the set piece an absolute mess, although with Bristol on top in the eyes of Brousset. However. the French official lost his patience with both sides and showed simultaneous yellow cards to props Max Lahiff and Andrew Porter to put both sides down to 14 men.
Having fought hard for 50 minutes, the floodgates opened in the 52nd minute as the quality of the Leinster squad began to shine. Barrett, who replaced Ciaran Frawley at half time, pulled back a brilliantly timed pass to Prendergast to put him outside of Joe Jenkins and then the fly-half sold a dummy to Lane to score under the posts.
Moments later, Prendergast ran a deceptive dummy line to wrong-foot the Bears defence and allow Barrett to cut back against the grain and explode over the whitewash.
One minute later the Dublin side had the attacking bonus point in the bag with the pick of the tries as RG Snyman took an offload deep in his own half and opened up his long legs to speed into opposition territory before linking with Prendergast who fended off a tackle before gliding in from 30m out.
The tries kept flowing as former World Player of Year van der Flier powered over the top of Ibitoye to touch down to cement his player of the match award.
The Bears had the last say as replacement scrum-half Kieran Marmion broke down the blindside before threading a grubber through for Ibitoye to claim and touch down, but it was little more than a consolation score.
The tests don’t get any easier for the Bears who head to two-time champions La Rochelle next weekend on a six day turnaround with some walking wounded.
Bristol Bears: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Jack Bates, 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Harry Randall, 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Max Lahiff, 4. James Dun, 5. Joe Owen, 6. Santiago Grondona, 7. Fitz Harding (c), 8. Bill Mata
Replacements : 16. Gabriel Oghre, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Lovejoy Chawatama, 19. Steven Luatua, 20. Benjamin Grondona, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Joe Jenkins, 23. Benjamin Elizalde
Leinster Rugby: 15. Ciaran Frawley, 14. Jordan Larmour, 13. Garry Ringrose, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. Jimmy O’Brien, 10. Sam Prendergast, 9. Jamison Gibson-Park, 1. Jack Boyle, 2. Ronan Kelleher, 3. Rabah Slimani, 4. Joe McCarthy, 5. James Ryan, 6. Max Deegan, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. Jack Conan (c)
Replacements: 16. Gus McCarthy, 17. Andrew Porter, 18. Tom Clarkson, 19. RG Snyman, 20. Caelan Doris, 21. Luke McGrath, 22. Ross Byrne, 23. Jordie Barrett.
Referee : Pierre Brousset (Fra)
Assistant Referees: Vincent Blasco Baque (Fra) and Julien Caulier (Fra)
TMO: Tual Trainini (Fra)
Citing Commissioner: Wejdane Limame (Fra)
Attendance: 15,618