Match Report

The home side led 17-0 at the interval and extended their advantage in the second half to take a comfortable win. Ulster managed to open their account in the second half with Richard McCarter scoring a try which he then converted. Ballymena winger Andrew Maxwell scored Ulster's second try with Owen McMurray adding the conversion after coming on as a replacement for McCarter. The hosts took the lead through a Jonathan Sexton penalty after three minutes after a strong initial Michael Berne break. Berne was then rewarded for some powerful forward surges with the first try in a blustery setting after some excellent work from skipper Kevin McLaughlin. Sexton added the difficult penalty from the touchline to push the Blues into a 10-0 lead which was extended further when a clever Stephen Grissing kick and chase found scrum-half Matthew D'Arcy who scrambled home from close range. Sexton added the points to give Leinster a 17-0 half-time lead. Sexton picked up where he left off in the first half when he surged forward in the 4st minute to touch down under the posts and easily added the points. It was one-way traffic and Berne added his second try of the afternoon, with St. Mary's man Sexton again converting, to give the hosts a seemingly unassailable 31-0 lead. To Ulster's credit they fought back and were rewarded with tries through out-half McCarter who converted his own breakaway try and Maxwell. But tries late on from the effective Niall Ronan and later from replacements Cian Culleton and Vasily Artemiev heaped more misery on the northeners who only had another breakaway effort from Jamie Smith.

Leinster: R McCarron (V Artemiev, 45), S Grissing, M Berne (C McNaughton 56), N Ronan, F Carr, J Sexton (A Dunne, 50), M D'Arcy (D Coughlan, ht); J Lyne (K Moloney, 56), A O'Sullivan (C Culleton, 56), R. Sweeney (P Doran-Jones, ht), A Byrnes, D Toner, K McLaughlin (capt), D Laffan, D Dillon

Ulster: M Kettyle, S Young, A Maxwell, S Megaw, J Smith, R McCarter, P Coulter; N Conlon, N Brady, T Court, L Stephenson, Filo, C Henry (capt), G Moore, S Lamb.

Referee: E. O'Dowd (IRFU)