Connacht vs Leinster: Carbery scores 20 points in 50-5 Leinster win

With 17 players away on international duty, Leinster still ran up 50 points in Galway. They beat Connacht 50-5 at the Dexcom Stadium on Friday 30 October, and Joey Carbery scored 20 of those points.

Both provinces were short-handed. Ireland call-ups cost Connacht eight players, and Leinster lost more than twice as many. On the night that gap made no difference to the visitors.

First-half damage

Leinster were 21-5 up at half-time. Connacht's only score came in the 28th minute, when hooker Dave Heffernan went over for a try. They did not score again.

Stuart Lancaster pointed to that opening 40 minutes as the decisive spell. "The first half obviously was the killer really for me," he said.

Leinster kept going after the break and finished with seven tries. Gus McCarthy, Jordan Larmour, Todd Lawlor, Max Deegan, Carbery, Ciaran Mangan and Fintan Gunne all scored.

Carbery's night

The fly-half scored a try, kicked six conversions and added a penalty to reach his 20 points. Carbery has also played for Munster and Bordeaux. He came back to Leinster in the summer, eight years after he first left the province.

The win moved Leinster up to third in the United Rugby Championship table.