“I’m not sure easy is the right word,” said Leinster’s coach, Leo Cullen, after his side won this Pool 4 match. It was.
Northampton suffered their biggest ever defeat in Europe and their heaviest under Jim Mallinder, the director of rugby whose job will come under increasingly heavy scrutiny after a 60-13 humiliation at the hands of Leinster in Dublin.
The Saints made 10 changes from last week’s 37-10 defeat to the same opponents at Franklin’s Gardens but that result was made to look positively narrow after the Irish province, who were as electric as the visitors were embarrassing, ran in nine tries.
By the final whistle it was easy to forget that Northampton had made a promising start. Stephen Myler put them in front by responding to Adam Byrne’s early try with a pair of penalties, then Ken Pisi finished brilliantly after intercepting near his own line and going the length of the pitch to make it 13-5. That was as good as it got for Mallinder’s team.
Luke McGrath and Byrne, again, scored in quick succession and from there Leinster did not look back. Sean O’Brien burrowed his way over to secure the bonus point before half time.
The second half was even more one-sided. Northampton barely got a sniff of the halfway line, let alone the one their hosts ostensibly had to defend. Tadgh Furlong, the man of the match, Sean Cronin, Isa Nacewa twice and Rory O’Loughlin all found their way over Northampton’s while finding little in the way of resistance.
