Joe Schmidt will be looking on with interest.
Adam Byrne’s fledgling career took another massive boost today at the Aviva Stadium as he shone in a comprehensive Leinster victory over a Northampton Saints side that struggled from the outset.
Byrne scored two tries during Leinster’s 60-13 exhibition against a Saints XV that looked like they wanted to be anywhere else but Dublin.
The 22-year-old’s first score came as Leinster went through a number of phases. The ball eventually came wide to the youngster who showed incredible strength and speed to get the ball down in the corner.
Byrne was involved in most of what Leinster did well on Saturday night… And there was an awful lot of it.
After 17 minutes he came within a whisker of latching on to a reverse pass from Zane Kirchner which just failed to go to hand.
Following the midway point of the first half, Byrne nearly added his second try from a crossfield kick which was slightly overcooked.
But there was no such issue at the half-hour mark as Byrne finally secured his well-deserved second try of the game when a knock on in midfield from Northampton led to Byrne picking up the ball and sprinting for the line.
The Kildare man used all of his 6′ 3″ frame to swat away the tackle attempt from Saints winger, Tom Collins, and put the ball down underneath the posts.
With his work done and done admirably, Byrne was removed from the fray ten minutes into the second half.
However, with only 50 minutes under his belt, Byrne made an astonishing 69 metres from four carries while beating three opposition players.
All in all not a bad night’s work for the young man, who you would imagine is inching closer towards a first cap for Ireland.
Especially if carries on like this.
Adam byrne is on 🔥🔥🔥 #LEIvNOR
— Rachel ⚡️ (@Rachie_h0ward_) December 17, 2016
https://twitter.com/ChrisILbondo/status/810219607869059076
https://twitter.com/ReynholmITdpt/status/810219509487456256
As for the game as a whole, Leinster were sloppy in the first half but the lack of a Northampton threat meant that they still enjoyed a healthy lead at the break.
One had a sense from Northampton’s starting XV that Leinster could put up a serious score and after 30 minutes on the clock it was all too obvious that that was going to be the case.
In a nutshell, this was a very good run out for Leinster – a lot of youngsters got some game time in the second half which will only benefit them going forward for the rest of the season. They will go into the Christmas period confident that they can continue their excellent run of form and have reinforcements rearing to go if a regular starter gets injured.
And, as for Northampton, well you would wonder whether Jim Mallinder’s decision to send out a weakened team could potentially derail their domestic season further. This slaughtering cannot be good for confidence, regardless of whether it was an understrength team or not.
