Clinical Leinster women bounce back to rout Ulster

Leinster rebounded from last week's losing start to the Vodafone Women's Interprovincial Championship with a resounding 57-5 bonus point victory over Ulster at Energia Park.

Ireland backs Natasja Behan and Leah Tarpey were both prominent on their Leinster senior debuts, helping Tania Rosser's charges to surge 33 points clear by half-time.

Christy Haney (2), Ruth Campbell, Aimee Clarke and Molly Boyne all touched down amid some impressively-built attacking phases. Captain Hannah O'Connor was on conversion duty, kicking five in all.

Two of the tries came after Ulster captain Beth Cregan's sin-binning on the half hour mark, and the visitors also missed the physical presence of injured forwards Sadhbh McGrath and Fiona Tuite.

The third quarter was more evenly matched with Vodafone player-of-the-match Katie Whelan and Niamh Marley, Ulster's right winger, trading well-taken scores.

A spate of yellow cards - three in a seven-minute spell - saw Leinster lose Aoife Dalton, Campbell and Haney to the sin bin, but they still had more in the tank and topped up their try haul to nine.

Ahead of next Saturday's crunch clash with Munster in Donnybrook, young centre Tarpey turned Ailsa Hughes' brilliant blindside break into a try, and Eimear Corri and Aoife Wafer snapped up two late efforts.

LEINSTER: Natasja Behan; Aimee Clarke, Aoife Dalton, Leah Tarpey, Clare Gorman; Nikki Caughey, Katie Whelan; Aoife Moore, Lisa Callan, Christy Haney, Ruth Campbell, Eimear Corri, Aoife Wafer, Molly Boyne, Hannah O’Connor (capt).

Replacements used: Emma Tilly for Gorman (8 mins), Linda Djougang for Moore, Elise O'Byrne-White for Behan (both half-time), Ailsa Hughes for Whelan (46), Dannah O'Brien for Caughey (53), Whelan for Clarke (68), Caoimhe