It's not often in sport, especially at the top, when you can watch your team fall behind four different times in a match yet still call the victory "comfortable", but you definitely can for this one.
Because even though your average irrationally-superstitious Leinster fan would never have said it out loud, even when they lost the lead you always had a sense at the back of your mind that they were going to pull it back with interest, and sure enough they did every time.
And perhaps if the referee Leighton Hodges, who seemed to be barely out of nappies when it comes to officiating at this level, knew what was meant by the term "professional foul", the contest would've been wrapped up a lot sooner.
If you look at the picture leading off this post you will see Rob Kearney on an early break - it actually looked as though he'd score but he didn't quite make the try line. Also right in the middle of the shot you'll see the rather, er, portly figure of Embra & Scotland prop Allan Jacobsen chugging along trying to keep up with the play.
Well when our full back was tackled and a ruck formed, Mr Jacobsen was able to catch up and, er, take part in the ruck. And of course in his book "taking part in" meant walking around the side and picking up the ball coughing up the pen when he knew damn well it prevented a try. Mr Hodges reaction? Penalty to the visiting side, and not even so much as a warning to the home one.
And later in the half there was a lesser case for a yellow when Tim Visser deliberately knocked on. For here you can use the sporting cliché "I've seen them given". And if the Dutch-born soon-to-be Scottish-qualified winger had gone to the bin, he wouldn't have scored his first try and Sean Cronin's blushes would've been spared with his missed tackle.
Because although I use the word "comfortable" for this triumph, it was by no means perfect. Visser's second try had three times the missed tackles as the slippery eel got past both Kearney brothers and Sexton to keep up his impressive record of five-pointers in this league.
It wasn't just the tackling either - sadly Cronin's darts were unsteady much like they were when he was with the Irish squad, and coach Schmidt was quite right afterwards to describe his returning World Cup stars as "rusty". But hey, if you can be rusty and still win by 8 points on the road in this league, then you can't really complain.
In patches, Michael Bradley's new charges looked impressive going forward but it has to be said Leinster rarely needed to move out of second let alone third gear to win this one, and the ease with which our two tries were scored will give him a lot to say in the DVD sessions during the week to come. He won't be too happy with the penalty count either - you'd like to think outscoring your opponents by 3 tries to 2 at home would at least get you a losing bonus!
So when you consider that the areas in which we were rusty (to which you can possibly include Sexton's placing of the ball on the tee though he of course had a super night with the boot overall) can all be easily rectified on the training ground, you definitely feel a lot better about this Leinster team going into our first clash with the old enemy than we did last year!
Now it's opinion time - with the World Cup stars now back and hopefully de-rusted, what Heineken Cup XV would I pick? Well for me the areas of contention are at 5, 7, 12, 15 and pretty much the entire bench.
Let's start at lock shall we. Devin Toner seems to have brushed off the cobwebs he showed last season and added some much-needed aggression to his game. Even though Steven Sykes will be pushing him hard for his spot I'd still go for the Irishman as the more time he spends on the pitch with Leo Cullen the more he'll learn.
Next...do we want the experience of Jennings at 7 or the promise of Ryan? Tough one. Ireland badly needs some upcoming talent at this position so if you were to make selections on that basis you'd plump for Ryan. But I'd like to think the coaches are allowed to pick their best available XVs for the HCup and I have a feeling that Jenno will get the nod for now. Ryan getting the captain's armband for the As against Ulster last week supports this view.
Then at 12 - sorry Gordon, but I see no alternative but to start Fergus McFadden. He is clearly the player in form and frankly if you leave him out after a display like that in Murrayfield, you make him more likely to listen to the offers to move elsewhere he surely must be getting behind the scenes.
Elsewhere among the replacements, the fact that Rhys Ruddock has started two matches each at 6, 7 and 8 as well as wearing the captain's armband tells me he's a shoo-in. Other calls I'd go for are Strauss over Cronin and despite Boss' impressive showed in Edinburgh, Reddan gets my nod at 9.
And finally we have the big elephant in the room. Who do you play at full-back for Leinster in the matches that matter? Rob Kearney has been in fine form since his return. But you simply cannot drop Isa. My solution? Isa at 15, Rob at 14. Imagine a back three of Luke, Rob & Isa. And I'm doing my best not to imagine what to do when Shaggy gets back from injury!
So, here's my Leinster 23 for the big matches to come.
15 Nacewa 14 R Kearney 13 O'Driscoll 12 McFadden 11 Fitzgerald 10 Sexton 9 Reddan 1 Healy 2 Strauss 3 Ross 4 Cullen 5 Toner 6 O'Brien 7 Jennings 8 Heaslipbench : 16 Cronin 17 Van Der Merwe 18 White 19 Sykes 20 Ruddock 21 Boss 22 Madigan 23 D'Arcy
Thanks for reading down this far, hope to see you at the Aviva on Friday night. JLP
