Leinster 30-15 Ulster: Hosts outmuscle Irish provincial rivals to earn Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final spot

Jamison Gibson-Park celebrates with team-mates Hugo Keenan and Ross Byrne after scoring Leinster's second try

Leinster booked passage through to the quarter-finals of the 2022/23 Heineken Champions Cup, as they outmuscled Irish provincial rivals Ulster in a 30-15 success at a drenched Aviva Stadium.

Tries on the day for the home side came through blindside Ryan Baird, scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, and loosehead Andrew Porter, while fly-half Ross Byrne added three penalties and all three conversions with the boot.

Ulster - whose supporters travelled in great numbers for the contest - scored tries through centre James Hume and hooker Rob Herring, but they conceded far too many penalties on the day, granting Leinster territorial access the hosts ultimately took full advantage of.

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Hume was sin-binned in the second half for a period in which Gibson-Park and Porter both scored their tries, while Harry Sheridan was also shown yellow late on. Leinster will face the Leicester Tigers in next week's Champions Cup quarter-finals, with the clash to be staged in Dublin again.

The European Cup clash was played at a packed Aviva Stadium in torrential rain on April Fool's Day

Ulster looked to have made the worst possible start when diminutive full-back Mike Lowry knocked on the kick-off, setting Leinster onto them and placing them firmly on the back foot within their own 22, but home centre Jimmy O'Brien - in for the injured Garry Ringrose - made a poor decision to kick instead of maintaining possession.

Lowry next produced a poor clearance kick to touch for little distance after Byrne appeared to have kicked too long, but the visitors got away with the error once again, as Leinster were penalised for a costly obstruction in the formation of a maul in the 22.

Full-back jitters proved contagious when Hugo Keenan knocked on a ball on the ground under no pressure within the Leinster 22, handing Ulster a real opening for the first score of the match. It was a chance they would take, as with Leinster penalised for failing to roll away at the breakdown, Nathan Doak stood up to clip over from close-range for 3-0 on 11 minutes.

Ulster scrum-half Nathan Doak kicked the opening points of the tie off the tee

Leinster were gifted an immediate response in scoring terms, as from the restart, Ulster skipper Alan O'Connor carelessly went off feet, allowing Byrne to strike over simply to level matters.

Lowry's nightmare start continued when Keenan beat him to an uninventive Byrne high ball when the Leinster man was firmly second best to do so, but Stuart McCloskey got the away side out of trouble through a brilliant breakdown turnover penalty.

Past the 20-minute mark, Leinster did get over for the opening try, as Baird showed his strength and dynamism to force his way past Dave McCann and Rory Sutherland to touch down in sodden conditions, with the origins of the score coming from a scrum penalty generated on halfway.

Ryan Baird showed his power to get over for the opening try

Byrne converted for 10-3, and within five minutes, bisected the posts again for three more points from 40 metres out for a 10-point lead after Ulster were penalised for collapsing a maul.

Needing to score next, Ulster duly obliged as an inspired piece of play from Jacob Stockdale - executing and claiming his own Garryowen for huge gain - set the platform, before Billy Burns produced an inch-perfect cross-field kick-pass to Hume - who was stood in an ocean of space, and finished well past James Lowe.

James Hume replied with a try for Ulster seven minutes after Leinster's opener

Doak struck the difficult conversion wide, but Byrne did likewise with his next penalty attempt past the half hour. Sniffing blood at the success the Leinster rolling maul was enjoying, skipper James Ryan chose to kick to the corner with the next penalty, and though Ulster's defence proved strong, Jack Conan appeared to have dummied and crashed his way over for a second try.

That was until furious protests from Ulster players prompted a TMO review, and proved Conan had grounded the ball short. Leinster had been on penalty advantage for offside, and so kicked to the corner, but desperate Ulster rear-guard action kept them at bay, prompting the hosts to claim more points via the boot of Byrne before the break.

Jack Conan was awarded Leinster's second try, but protests promoted a TMO review which ruled out the try as short

Six minutes into the second period, Ulster kicked to the corner for a big opportunity after Gibson-Park was pinged for failing to roll away, but Ryan got up to steal the lineout for Leinster superbly.

A flurry of fatal Ulster mistakes soon followed: John Cooney was charged down within his own 22, the resulting lineout was lost forward by O'Connor, and Hume was then sin-binned for failing to release in the tackle before a successful jackal attempt near the try-line - a harsh looking call by referee Luke Pearce.

Hume's sin-binning was a damaging moment for Ulster in Dublin

The inevitable followed as Gibson-Park sped in for a try after a Leinster attack had actually gone wrong between Robbie Henshaw and Byrne, leaving both men and the ball on the floor, but Gibson-Park to execute a brilliant pick-up, followed by darting pace to score. Byrne converted for a hefty 23-8 advantage.

Scrum-half Gibson-Park sped in for Leinster's crucial second try

With Hume still off the pitch, Ulster responded with their second try, as a romping driving maul proved impossible to stop - Leinster twice giving away penalties at mauls in the phases previous - with Herring grounding.

Cooney converted immaculately to reduce the deficit back to eight points, and Byrne kicked the restart dead, as Ulster supporters started to believe. But it was belief that was killed stone dead when Leinster marched forward for a scrum penalty against the head.

Rob Herring hit back for Ulster as they got back to within eight points, but their hope was soon quelled

McCloskey did magnificently to hold the ball up over the try-line as O'Brien seemed certain to score, but the respite was all too brief as Porter propelled himself forward from close-range in the final play of Hume's sin-bin period - a potential double-movement not checked by the officials.

Loosehead Andrew Porter scored Leinster's third try from close-range

Sheridan next received his yellow card for a fairly innocuous looking high tackle on Byrne - wrapping both arms around the body but guilty of a glancing head-to-head contact - ending any hope Ulster had of getting back into things.