Springboks lock RG Snyman produced a man-of-the-match performance as Leinster continued to their perfect start to the United Rugby Championship campaign with a 12-33 victory over Connacht.

It was a rather rudimentary victory for Leo Cullen’s charges who have now collected a full house of points in their opening five matches collecting a maximum of 25 points, opening up a seven-point buffer over the Lions in second place.

Leinster bossed the early exchanges scoring two tries in the opening 15 minutes through Jamie Os𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧e and Liam Turner and never really looked threatened with further scores from Snyman, Max Deegan and Andrew Os𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧e with Ciaran Frawley adding a conversion and Ross Byrne knocking over three.

Connacht tried their utmost to impose themselves on the derby with Sean O’Brien and Cathal Forde crossing the whitewash, both tries converted by Josh Ioane, but the men in blue were just too strong.

Springboks lock Snyman was in stellar form showing off his extreme athleticism and mindboggling offloading ability while Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will be sweating over the fitness of Frawley who was forced off the pitch with a concerning injury just 16 minutes into the fixture.

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Ciaran Frawley hobbled off with a leg injury to raise concerns ahead of Ireland’s Autumn Nations Series, but his club team-mates coasted home with further scores from Max Deegan and Os𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧e’s younger brother Andrew.

Individual errors made it a night to forget for Connacht, who crossed the whitewash through Sean O’Brien and replacement Cathal Forde.

Ireland international Jamie Os𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧e was in the thick of the visitors’ early attacks, popping up to score from an inviting Jamison Gibson-Park pass. Frawley converted with six minutes on the clock.

Snyman’s offloading s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s, and a final pass from Hugo Keenan, saw Turner cross from the right wing. Replacement Ross Byrne added the extras, taking over from the injured Frawley.

Leinster captain James Ryan had a try ruled out for accidental offside, before Connacht edged their way downfield despite some small kicking gains into a tricky wind.

Connacht stalwart Denis Buckley put O’Brien over in the 33rd minute, yet Leinster added a third try before the interval as Snyman picked up a loose ball to score.\

Deegan powered over five minutes after the restart, as the flanker turned Byrne’s low bouncing pass into a five-pointer. Andrew Os𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧e was denied a subsequent score by a thunderous tackle from Bundee Aki.

The emerging Ireland player recovered to close out the scoring in the 65th minute, plucking down a Byrne restart and spinning through to score.

Os𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧e’s effort came just after Forde had exploited some space through the middle to take his side into double figures.

Benetton’s strong second-half performance proved too much for the Dragons as the Italians picked up a valuable five points in a 31-21 win at Rodney Parade.

Dragons, looking to end a run of three straight United Rugby Championship defeats, trailed 10-7 at the break but they could not hold off a powerful Benetton in the second period.

All of the visitors’ tries came from their forwards with Bautista Bernasconi, Enzo Avaca, Marco Manfredi and Lorenzo Cannone all crossing. Jacob Umaga kicked a penalty and two conversions with Tomas Al𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧oz adding two conversions.

Joe Westwood, Lloyd Evans and Shane Lewis-Hughes scored Dragons’ tries, with Evans kicking two conversions and Angus O’Brien one.

Rhodri Williams led out Dragons to celebrate his 150th appearance in the URC competition and his side received an early boost when he was illegally taken out of a ruck by Bernasconi who was yellow-carded.

Helped by the Italian hooker’s departure, Dragons dominated the first quarter of the contest but it remained scoreless as the hosts declined to take a kickable penalty in favour of an attacking line-out and it proved to be the wrong call.

A powerful burst from Jared Rosser and a mazy run from Rio Dyer kept the home side on the front foot but with the try-line beckoning, they lacked accuracy in their passing to make it count.

However, before Bernasconi could return, Dragons took the lead when Westwood intercepted a stray pass to run 50 metres and score.

Evans converted before Umaga put Benetton on the scoreboard with a penalty.

Evans put the restart straight into touch which allowed the visitors to exert their first period of pressure and were rewarded when Bernasconi finished off a driving line-out. Umaga converted to give his side a 10-7 interval lead.

Five minutes after the restart that advantage was extended when Williams failed to take a speculative up and under. The ball ran loose for Avaca to brush aside a weak tackle from Evans to score.

Evans soon made amends by scoring Dragons’ second try but Benetton kept the distance between the teams when Manfredi powered over.

Dragons’ race was run and it came as no surprise when Lorenzo Cannone crossed for the bonus-point try.

The Welsh region had the final say with a try for Lewis-Hughes, but the contest had long been decided.