Leinster spark into life and cruise past Bristol

Bristol Bears (7) 12

Tries: Lahiff, Ibitoye Con: Janse van Rensburg

Leinster (7) 35

Tries: Larmour, Prendergast 2, Barrett, Van der Flier Con: Prendergast 5

Leinster began their pursuit of a 5th Investec Champions Cup crown with a ruthless 2nd fractional show to assertion a bonus-point triumph implicit Bristol Bears astatine Ashton Gate.

Fly-half Sam Prendergast scored 20 points, including 2 of his side's 4 tries aft the break, arsenic caller signing Jordie Barrett and Josh van der Flier besides crossed.

Bristol started brightly and took the pb done Max Lahiff from adjacent scope but Leinster, who had 2 players successful the sin-bin, deed backmost astir instantly erstwhile Jordan Larmour capitalised connected Rich Lane's handling error.

The teams were tied astatine the interval but the visitors were capable to bring connected New Zealand inferior backmost Barrett and South Africa's World Cup-winning fastener RG Snyman, whose prime tipped the equilibrium successful Leinster's favour.

Barrett opened his relationship for the nine with a clever dummy earlier sliding implicit nether the posts and Snyman's fierce complaint set-up Prendergast connected his enarthrosis to seal the bonus.

Back enactment Van der Flier added further gloss to the scoreline for the four-time winners with a almighty surge from a line-out.

Premiership leaders Bristol salvaged a precocious consolation done winger Gabriel Ibitoye, who latched onto Kieran Marmion's footwear to tally clear.

Leinster big Clermont Auvergne successful their adjacent Pool 2 crippled connected Saturday, 14 December (17:30 GMT), portion Bristol question to erstwhile champions La Rochelle aboriginal connected the aforesaid time (20:00).

Prendergast's inspired show strengthened his assertion arsenic Johnny Sexton's semipermanent successor for Leinster and Ireland.

The archetypal fractional was 1 for the purists arsenic Bristol tried to starve Leinster of the ball, but Prendergast's clever spot implicit the apical caused alarm successful the Bears' ranks and Lane was incapable to stitchery the ball, which popped up fortuitously for Larmour to score.

After the break, Leinster turned the screw arsenic Prendergast combined beautifully with debutant Barrett. The satellite celebrated All Black came connected astatine full-back, but took the shot astatine archetypal receiver earlier freeing the fly-half to glide done connected the wrapper around.

Minutes later, Leinster set-up successful the aforesaid way, but this clip Barrett held onto the shot and dived implicit arsenic Prendergast was utilized arsenic a dummy runner.

The fig 10 past doubled his tally arsenic helium followed the bustling tally of Snyman to tally wide and people his side's 4th try.

A afloat instrumentality of 5 conversions from 5 attempts from the tee rounded disconnected a stunning show by Prendergast arsenic helium looks to found himself arsenic the talisman for nine and country.

Bristol: Lane; Bates, Van Rensburg, Ravouvou, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Randall; Genge, Thacker, Lahiff, Dun, Owen, Grondona, Harding (capt), Mata.

Replacements: Oghre, Woolmore, Chawatama, Luatua, Grondona, Marmion, Jenkins, Elizalde.

Leinster: Frawley; Larmour, Ringrose, Henshaw, O'Brien; Prendergast, Gibson-Park; Boyle, Kelleher, Slimani, J McCarthy, Ryan, Deegan, Van der Flier, Conan (capt).

Replacements: G McCarthy, Porter, Clarkson, Snyman, Doris, McGrath, R Byrne, Barrett.

Referee: Craig Evans (Wal)