The Ospreys had been competitive in the first period with Leinster only taking a 21-14 into half-time. The Irish province, however, would turn up the power after the break to score six additional unanswered tries on route to a comprehensive win.
It would be a victory that lifts the Irish up to second in the URC standings and a point behind Glasgow with two rounds remaining.
Ireland wing Jordan Larmour scored his first senior hat-trick, whilst utility back Jimmy O’Brien, centre Jamie Osborne, veteran Kiwi Charlie Ngatai, centre Tommy O’Brien and locks Ross Molony and Jason Jenkins also touched down for the hosts, with fly-half Ross Byrne converting five of the nine tries and Ciaran Frawley three.
Ospreys had fought back from two early Leinster tries to be level at 14-14 midway through the first half following an Owen Watkin effort and a penalty try but they were brushed aside after that to drop one place to 11th in the table.
It would be a hammer blow to Booth’s side’s chances of qualifying for the final play-off stage with a number of the teams around the Ospreys winning.
Whilst not mathematically impossible for the Welsh region to qualify, it would now likely need a series of results elsewhere to go in their favour along with two bonus point derby day victories.
“My immediate reaction is obviously disappointment of course because no one likes to lose and especially with scorelines like that,” said Booth.
“Probably it is realistic in understanding in relation to where we are.
“We have played against three teams in and around the final four in successive weeks and benchmark against them.
“When we have been accurate and have intensity, we’ve looked good, and when we have had intensity without accuracy not so.
“When we haven’t had intensity, we are always going to look average.
“Today there was a lot, the boys were really up for it against the very best, but if you are poor from an accuracy point-of-view they will punish you.
“They are bringing international quality of the bench and have the ability to sustain an output for 80 minutes. It is very tough, and your mistakes will get punished the longer it goes on.
“I like the endeavour, but we need to be more accurate.
“The boys are disappointed and the changing room after the game wasn’t a good place.
“All that matters is what we do next and whilst it is still mathematically possible to try and achieve it [the play-off placings].
“We have a big game next week against the Dragons, it’s a local derby and is important to finish strong. We will see where that takes us.
“This will be insignificant if we perform well. It’s a tough challenge – Welsh derbies are highly contested, but we have to dust ourselves off.
“We want to finish strongly because we have done a lot of good things this year and we don’t want the season to fade away.
“That wouldn’t represent the effort that has gone in throughout to get us to this point.”
[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]
