IN THE END, the Dragons were easy pickings for a Leinster side bursting with energy, confidence and clarity.
But Leo Cullen’s charges did leave him with some moments of doubt when Bernard Jackman’s visitors effectively worked through their phases to open up a 10 – 0 lead.
“You’re never too sure coming off the break,” said Cullen after a month-long, one-match wait for a win.
“We finished our game against Glasgow (a 31 – 21 loss) and we had a week off, a lot of guys went in to national camp. So the review of that game was hanging in the air. And it was quite a tough one, because a lot of things in that game were… the players were disappointed themselves with things that happened in that game.”
The bonus point victory that, combined with Ulster only managing a narrow win over Treviso, pushes Leinster into second place in the Pro14′s conference B was achieved before half-time.
Though it did take an impressive rise in tempo and intensity heat up the RDS with 28 points in 20 minutes courtesy of some sparkling attacking play from Ross Byrne, Rory O’Loughlin and Jordan Larmour with Sean Cronin in typically rampaging form.
“We were a little bit slow out of the blocks, I thought,” adds Cullen.
“Defensively, they took us on on the seam and took away our edge defenders at the ruck and picked a way into those spaces. They caused us problems and obviously scored that try to go 10 up, but we showed reasonably good composure, just stuck to processes and I thought the lads were really clinical in attack.
“We didn’t cough up the ball cheap at any stage, we were patient in attack and took the opportunities when they came.”
All eight of them.
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