Leinster proved too strong at their RDS fortress, beating the Scarlets 50-15 in Dublin.

It was a second successive defeat against Irish opposition for Dwayne Peel’s side, who conceded seven tries to the champions, who ran away with the match in the second period.

Scarlets created two lovely tries for Johnny McNicholl and debutant Tomas Lezana - one in each half - but there were too many errors that allowed Leinster to dominate possession and territory.

It was the Scarlets who were first on the scoreboard after just two minutes; fly-half Sam Costelow nailing a penalty kick after the home side had infringed inside their 22.

Opposite number Johnny Sexton levelled things up, but the Scarlets stunned the RDS on 17 minutes with a superbly-crafted score.

Centre Johnny Williams did the damage with a half-break and back-door off-load which found Ioan Nicholas on his outside; the full-back then drew the final defender to send McNicholl haring into the corner.

However, the rest of the half belonged to the home side who starved the Scarlets of possession.

That meant the visitors having to spend long periods in defensive mode, particularly close to their own line.

It was hooker Ronan Kelleher who touched down for the hosts’ first try from a line-out rumble on 23 minutes and it wasn’t long before international front-row colleague Andrew Porter was celebrating a second, the prop diving over from short-range.

The Scarlets dug deep to hold out until first-half stoppage time, but after conceding a series of scrum penalties, they saw referee Marius van der Westhuizen head between the posts to award a penalty try.

Trailing 22-8 at the break, the visitors desperately needed a strong start to the second period, but it was the home fans celebrating a fourth and bonus-point score soon after the restart with flanker Caelan Doris touching down following a Kelleher break.

But back came the Scarlets with another try for the highlights reel.

From a scrum just outside the Leinster 22, a combination of replacement Dan Jones, Jonathan Davies and McNicholl put flanker Lezana over for his first try in Scarlets colours.

Dan Jones converted, but Leinster weren’t going to allow the Scarlets any way into the contest as replacements Cian Healy and Dan Sheehan (twice) added to the home try tally.