IT WAS LEO Cullen himself who posed the question, as he tends to do.

“Has it fixed last week?” asked Cullen on Saturday night after his Leinster team scored nine tries in a dominant 59-10 URC quarter-final win over the Lions.

“No,” was his answer.

“But it’s another week for us as a group, which is great.”

Leinster hope that next weekend will be another springboard onto one last game in their season, the URC final.

They’ll have to beat the Stormers at the Aviva next Saturday to reach the decider, which will either be against Glasgow in Edinburgh or against the Bulls in Dublin. Glasgow are favourites as they host the Bulls for their semi-final on Saturday afternoon.

So while the win over the Lions certainly didn’t fix the pain of last weekend’s Champions Cup final loss to Bordeaux, it was a start in Leinster trying to build themselves back up again. As Cullen pointed out during the week, winning the URC is the best start to having a crack at the Champions Cup again next season.

As well as that, Leinster are just intent on defending their title, which they won so impressively by giving the Bulls a thumping at Croke Park last June. Trophies are what professional sport is about.

Leinster will be aiming to attract a much bigger crowd for the visit of the Stormers on Saturday than was present for the battering of the Lions, with an official attendance of just under 10,000 for the quarter-final. 

An 8pm kick-off on the Saturday of a Bank holiday weekend is far from ideal, while Dart closures were not helpful, but there were surely some Leinster fans who just couldn’t face being there in person so soon after events in Bilbao.

Yet those who turned up got plenty of entertainment and must have left the Aviva Stadium feeling lighter. Like the players, the best antidote for these supporters was throwing themselves right back into it.

How could they not have enjoyed the sight of Joe McCarthy rampaging through tackles and setting up tries with some lovely passing? The 25-year-old lock was one of the few Leinster players who performed close to their best in the Champions Cup final and he continued his excellent form against the Lions.

He appeared to be limping when he was replaced in the second half, but Cullen didn’t provide any clarity beyond saying that McCarthy was “OK.” There will be fingers crossed that he is good to go against the Stormers because the explosive lock is a real energiser for this Leinster team.

And how could Leinster fans not have enjoyed the sight of Sam Prendergast in confident form, throwing some sumptuous passes for several of Leinster’s scores? There were bridge passes, fizzing skip passes, and subtle short balls, too.

Sam Prendergast on his way to a try. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

In this kind of playmaking form, he is a lot of fun to watch and tough to defend against. He ran in a popular intercept try. His place-kicking was impressive too, with seven successes from nine efforts, while Prendergast got through his defensive work without fuss.

All the out-half talk was about Ciarán Frawley during the week, but Cullen’s decision to back Prendergast as the starter for this game was vindicated.

There were other standouts, with wing Jimmy O’Brien continuing his excellent form, having been unlucky to miss out on involvement in the Champions Cup final.

Rieko Ioane was very sharp at outside centre, particularly in his square running and well-timed passing. In the back row, Scott Penny and Caelan Doris got through plenty of effective work.

And then there was James Lowe, whose first try was greeted with glee as Leinster fans celebrated him setting a new try-scoring record of 70. Even better was Lowe scoring again with the last play of the game to make it 71.

The 33-year-old is set to leave the province at the end of the season, with Cullen’s post-match words suggesting that Lowe may soon confirm this. Leinster fans let it be known that they would love for Lowe to keep playing for the province.

The contract talks have seemingly been a frustrating process for him, so the Ireland international must have taken delight in showing his enduring quality with those two snappy finishes, as well as a big second-half linebreak down the left, and some nice kicks in the first half.

All of the above must be taken in the context of the Lions being very poor in this URC quarter-final.

They made camp in Dublin in recent weeks and would’ve been hoping to take advantage of any signs of Leinster still wallowing in the pain of last weekend’s Champions Cup final.

Yet they offered very little to the game and even conceded two tries while Thomas Clarkson was in the sin bin. 

Leinster simply had too much power and class for the South African side.

As Cullen said, it didn’t change what happened in Bilbao, but Leinster’s players and supporters clearly went home having enjoyed the outing.

On they go to a clash with the Stormers that will surely be more challenging.