Rory O’Loughlin hails Leinster’s improvement

Leinster inside centre Rory O’Loughlin praised the improvement shown by his side in Saturday’s Champions Cup win over Bath at the Aviva Stadium.

After claiming a hard-fought 17-10 victory over the Premiership outfit at the Recreation Ground last weekend, the Irish province delivered a much better showing in the return match, which they won 42-15.

“It was good to get the result over there but we felt we came off second best at times in the collisions and that was the main focus here today,” O’Loughlin told RTÉ Sport.

“We set the tone well quite early in the game by winning those one-on-one collisions and getting over the gain line, which allowed us to get into our flow and get the ball out wide.

“We were pretty happy that we didn’t let up in the second half, we had two or three long defensive sets where we kept them out. It was a more complete performance.

“In the moments that really counted we were clinical and that was the difference this week.”

O’Loughlin was the official man-of-the-match and won plenty of praise after crossing for Leinster’s second try.

“When he (Jordan Larmour) has the ball in his hands he is more than likely going to go through a hole somewhere,” he said.

“He has that kind of x factor so when I saw him take off I just got as close as possible.

“I thought he was going to go the whole way himself but I was delighted to get over the line.”

Bath boss Todd Blackadder said: “Leinster were pretty clinical and took their opportunities. We didn’t help ourselves at times. We were a little bit passive.”