Leinster were given the honour of opening up the new Heineken Champions Cup campaign in Dublin last night and the reigning champions lived up to their considerable billing with an ultimately devastating display of vibrant rugby.

Eight tries scores, none conceded. This was a remarkable statement of intent and maybe the most alarming aspect for those sides starting out on the same long road to May’s decider over the course of today and tomorrow was that it took them a full 40 minutes to find their stride.

Not a bad half-day’s work.

Leinster had been caught at home on opening day before. Three times, in fact, and with each of the defeats inflicted by English opposition. The last of them had come at the hands of last night’s opponents only three years ago here at the RDS.

The prospects of that trio bloating into a quartet didn’t appear likely as early as Thursday, when Leo Cullen named a side boasting 14 Ireland internationals and James Lowe. The late switch of Rhys Ruddock for Dan Leavy didn’t exactly curb the dramatic impact of the earlier reveal.

Wasps coach Dai Young had described the champions’ matchday squad as “frightening” and he must have feared the worst after just half-a-dozen minutes when Sean Cronin picked up from the base of the ruck on the border of the visitors’ 22 and sped through for the first try.

It was a facepalm bit of defending for the English side who have been porous over the course of their first six games in the Premiership, but then they stiffened their collective spine with some aggressive defence and a quick line speed that flirted flagrantly with the offside line.

They were less threatening in attack, a penalty from former All Black Lima Sopoaga reducing the deficit to 7-3 after 11 minutes. There it stayed until the last dregs of the half and Leinster were at fault for the unwanted stasis on the scoreboard.

There were bits done well and bits done brilliantly up to then, but a side that had been so ruthless with limited opportunities against Munster last weekend fluffed their lines time and again to keep check on any momentum that was fleetingly generated.

Young’s son Thomas pilfered two turnovers in his own 22 at either end of the period, but there was a pair of botched Leinster lineouts here and a Jordan Larmour kick straight to touch. All sprinkled with a a sloppy Luke McGrath pass that caused Cian Healy to knock on a few metres out.

This was still Leinster, though. You knew that couldn’t continue.

That Healy error came off the back of a move that spanned half the length of the pitch and well over 20 phases. James Lowe made one searing burst in broken play and Garry Ringrose decorated it all with some sublime passing at times.

The kickstart Leinster needed arrived in injury-time, Sopoaga giving away a penalty and earning a harsh yellow card for what was deemed to be a deliberate knock-on. Never mind that the pass from Cronin to Lowe was clearly forward. Them’s the breaks and all that.

Leinster reacted with their most accomplished attack of the evening to date, making inches here and a metre there in a patient but persistent attacking effort until Luke McGrath stretched his arm over the line for a second, converted try. It was a score that, even at the time, appeared to carry more worth than a mere seven points and Leinster would actually have the win and the four-try bonus-point in the bag — and a host of starters on the bench with their feet up — long before the end of the third quarter.

Lowe claimed the third try, a sprinted finish from the halfway line off a brilliantly executed first-phase move, before Luke McGrath claimed his second on the 52nd minute with an easy trot in after some delicious handling and passing from ... Tadhg Furlong.

You know you’re in trouble when a tighthead, even one as multi-talented as Furlong, is standing up a wing and playing such a killer pass, but that bit of bling was bettered less than 10 minutes later when Sexton shot a pass through his legs in the run-up to Lowe’s second five-pointer.

The out-half’s conversion left it at 35-3 and, with plenty of time remaining for more damage. And damage they did. Larmour, Henshaw and Jack McGrath duly left their signatures on the final scoresheet with the sixth, seventh and eight tries.

The only blemish in that sparkling second-half was one missed conversion by Ross Byrne.

Devastating.

Leinster: R Kearney, J Larmour, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; J Sexton (c), L McGrath; C Healy, S Cronin, T Furlong; D Toner, J Ryan; R Ruddock, J van der Flier, J Conan.

Replacements: J McGrath for Healy (HT); J Tomane for Kearney (54); J Tracy for Cronin and A Porter for Furlong (both 56); S O’Brien for van der Flier (57); N McCarthy for L McGrath (63); S Fardy for Toner (64); R Byrne for Sexton (70).

Wasps: W Le Roux, J Bassett, J De Jongh, M Le Bourgeois, E Daly (c); L Sopoaga, J Simpson; Z Zhvania, T Taylor, K Brookes; W Rowlands, J Gaskell; B Shields, T Young, N Carr.

Replacements: B Harris for Zhvania and W Stuart for Brookes (both 54); T Cruse for Taylor, K Myall for Rowlands and A Johnson for Carr (all 59); C Hampson for Simpson (69); B Searle for Sopoaga and R Miller for le Roux (both 78).

Referee: R Poite (FFR).