Leinster run Bath ragged

Luke Fitzgerald: Crossed twice to help secure an extra bonus point

Leinster showed they are in no mood to surrender their grip on the Heineken Cup with a 52-27 rout of Bath at the Aviva Stadium.

The reigning kings of Europe looked at their regal best on home turf, running in seven tries to leave themselves well clear of the rest in Pool 3.

They secured the bonus point inside a minute of the second half as a beleaguered Bath team were put to the sword in Dublin.

To their credit, the Aviva Premiership side did not stop fighting until the final whistle, running in three tries themselves to give the final scoreline a rather better look.

Dominance

Leinster had been made to work hard for their 18-13 win in the reverse fixture at the Rec, relying on Jonathan Sexton's boot as tries proved hard to come by.

They had no such problems on Saturday, crossing inside the opening four minutes to set the tone for a night of dominance - at one stage they led 45-6.

A slice of luck led to them breaking the deadlock, a Sexton penalty off the right post coming back to Devin Toner. Wave-after-wave of attack followed before Eoin Reddan's flicked pass out the back of a ruck set up Rob Kearney.

Sexton landed the conversion and then added a superbly-struck drop goal from long range to cancel out an Ollie Barkley penalty for the visitors.

Barkley did land a further three points to make it 10-6 soon after, but that would be the last time Bath were within touching distance.

Giant lock Toner and previous try-scorer Kearney combined to set up Luke Fitzgerald's first of the night despite Leinster being down to 14 men, Leo Cullen seeing yellow for throwing a punch.

The scorer then turned creator eight minutes later, bursting free down the left before passing back inside to the supporting Sexton - the fly-half amassed an impressive 20-point haul in the 59 minutes he was on the pitch.

If Bath thought the half-time interval might lead to Leinster slowing down they were soon proved wrong - Fitzgerald again got clear on the left, only this time he was able to cut inside two players to touch down himself.

The visitors' situation got even worse when Sam Vesty was sin-binned, and from the very next passage of play Reddan - a livewire all night behind his dominant pack - darted over from the base of a ruck.

Enjoying themselves

By now even the forwards were starting to enjoy themselves, prop Mike Ross' inside ball putting Kearney into a gap. Bath did manage to get to grips with the Ireland international but could do nothing to stop replacement Rhys Ruddock worked his way around the outside on the next phase of play.

With the game well and truly over as a contest, Schmidt took the chance to rest some of his stars for the final 20 minutes.

Bath took advantage of the raft of changes to Leinster's line-up to cross through Stephen Donald and Dave Attwood, with Barkley converting both.

Still, Leinster did raise their standards again to reach the half-century mark, replacement fly-half Ian Madigan darting through a tired defensive line that was successfully converted by Isa Nacewa.

Ben Williams rounded out the scoring with a try on the last play of the game, giving Bath something to smile about. In truth, though, they were probably more grateful to just hear the final whistle.