ELLIS PARK AT 1.30pm on the brink of summer will be one of the toughest days in the office Leinster’s young guns have had, and head coach Leo Cullen said it was “pleasing” to see how they responded in their United Rugby Championship opener against the Lions on Saturday.

Although the defending champions suffered defeat, going down 27-26 to the team that finished seventh last season, Leinster persevered to the very end, having the last say with an 86th-minute try by replacement hooker Stephen Smyth that earned them two log points – the bonus point for four tries and another for finishing within seven points.

Leinster had 10 starters under the age of 25 and five more on the bench, and Cullen’s expectations were commensurate with that rawness. Debutant Todd Lawlor gave an accomplished performance at full-back, making his father Phil, the former Leinster eight, a very proud man when he visited the changing room later.

Dylan McNeice’s family was also in attendance, and although he was unfortunate to receive a 73rd-minute yellow card on debut after repeated offsides at the ruck by Leinster, the imposing 20-year-old threw himself around well in the dozen minutes he was on the field.

“Today’s message was really about enjoying the outing rather than the outcome because of all the youngsters in the team and not wanting to unload too much pressure on them,” said Cullen.

“We had three academy players starting and three more on the bench, and two debutants, as well as some players making their first starts, so it would have been a great experience for them.

“So there are lots of positives exposing those guys to one of the toughest venues, 1700 metres above sea level – it’s a different environment entirely. So we threw them into the lions’ den, so to speak, to see how they survived.

“They showed very pleasing character to come up with multiple phases with 40 seconds left on the clock, to scramble a try at the end and get us a hugely important two points, that’s going to be fantastic for the group. It’s still early season and two points away from home is good.”

Leinster’s first half earned a definite pass mark from the demanding coach, but the second half saw them go off the boil. That and the couple of chances that were wasted in both halves were the work-ons ahead of next weekend’s visit to South Africa’s East coast and a match against the Sharks.

“I was pleased with how we started, we showed a lot of intent in both attack and defence and put the Lions under pressure. We were able to score some decent tries from range, but we did have opportunities inside the 22 in both halves which we could not execute. It was just little things, but they are things that are under our control.

“In the second half, with the conditions, there was maybe a bit of a fatigue factor and our decision-making was not so good. Our attack did not function as well and the Lions controlled the second half much better than us.

“But credit to the Lions, they are a good team and they showed up well. Their speed of transition makes them incredibly dangerous and they put some big scores on teams here last season. Our internationals are still in their pre-season phase and we still need to build those connections, that cohesion and understanding.”