Leinster 54-10 Dragons: Leo Cullen's side blitz Dragons

Sean Cronin and Leinster had too much in attack for Dragons

Leinster erased an early 10-point deficit to put the deflated Dragons to the sword in a 54-10 Guinness PRO14 victory at the RDS.

Flanker Josh Murphy scored a try on his first start and the hosts had secured a bonus point by the 32nd minute with Jamison Gibson-Park, captain Isa Nacewa and Max Deegan all touching down.

James Benjamin's 11th-minute try, added to an early Gavin Henson drop goal, inspired hopes of Dragons' first away league win since March 2015. However, Leinster's man of the match Ross Byrne had other ideas.

Fly-half Byrne was excellent with ball in hand and landed five successive conversions from an array of angles.

Nacewa's second try, coupled with two closing efforts from Jordan Larmour and Rory O'Loughlin, made it eight tries and 54-points without reply.

Seizing the initiative on a bitterly cold Dublin night, Dragons built early pressure to set up Henson for a crisply struck 35-metre drop goal.

With Adam Warren breaking through midfield soon after, and Leinster losing Ross Molony to injury, Bernard Jackman's men continued to dictate and enjoyed some success at the breakdown.

Benjamin started and finished a prolonged attack for his try, with Sarel Pretorius and Ellis Shipp sniping through gaps before the South African scrum-half fed the No 8 to crash over.

Henson's conversion from the left-wing moved Dragons into double figures, but Leinster finally burst into life on the quarter-hour mark - Gibson-Park scrambled over from close range after a helter-skelter attack left Sean Cronin short.

Max Deegan crosses for Leinster

Ross Byrne, prominent in the build-up to the try, converted and he also added a terrific touchline kick to Nacewa's 27th-minute score.

O'Loughlin had released the skipper for the left corner after Scott Fardy and Cronin had clattered their way into scoring range.

With full-back Larmour beginning to fizz, a devastating one-two blow netted the bonus-point for Leinster.

Ed Byrne tidied up a five-metre line-out and added crucial momentum to Murphy's drive for the back row's maiden try. Byrne maintained his 100 per cent kicking record, and from the restart, Larmour and Cronin led the charge over halfway. Then, Byrne's crossfield kick was gobbled up by McFadden, who sent the supporting Deegan over wide on the right.

It was 35-10 after Angus O'Brien's deliberate knock-on saw the referee award a penalty try and the Dragons' full-back sin-binned.

The Leinster skipper was over in the corner a couple of minutes later after collecting Gibson-Park's skip-pass.

Despite an increasing share of possession and territory, the Welsh outfit struggled to break down the home defence as the second-half lulled along.

The game sparked back into life in the final 10 minutes, a TMO decision going Larmour's way after a four-man scramble to reach a kick through before O'Loughlin slid over in the left corner.