Self-praise no praise for D'Arcy

Modesty forbade Gordon D'Arcy from extolling his performance at Donnybrook, but there were plenty of others willing to wring out the superlatives in his honour. Instead, D'Arcy contented himself with a rather downbeat assessment of his excellence.

"It's difficult to tell when you've just come straight from the pitch, but I was happy enough with my game. I made a few clean breaks, but a lot of individuals played well on the night."

The win didn't camouflage one or two shortcomings in the home side's performance, and D'Arcy alighted on these during his evaluation of the match.

"As a team we switched off for a while in the second half, something that we have done all year. At one point there was only two tries between the teams and that was disappointing, because we had been lackadaisical (in our defending). They never looked like creating anything until we knocked off (mentally). Our defence around the fringes was not good enough.

"We can take a lot of positives from the game, but we know that we have to improve by 20 or 30 per cent for the game against Edinburgh.

"This (the win) does put us on a sound footing in the Magners League but our focus now is the European Cup for the next two weeks."

He managed to poke fun at himself with the observation that, "I have given up trying to score tries, but I don't mind as long as the team is scoring. It was great to see Rob (Kearney) come back in and score a brilliant individual try."

Leinster coach Michael Cheika conceded there had been a touch of the curate's egg about his side's display, but did single out individuals like Cameron Jowitt, Rob Kearney and D'Arcy, describing the latter as "exceptional" for special mention.

The Australian admitted he was disappointed the Ospreys had decided to field a weakened team. "It was difficult, because I know being a former player what it's like when the opposition doesn't bring a full team. It can be hard mentally to switch on. We were a bit disappointed they didn't bring their full team.

"I'm also disappointed that we were not that bit more clinical and ruthless. We went off mentally and let them in for a couple of soft tries."

Stephen Keogh, who came off in the first half with a damaged hand, should be fit for next weekend's game; Trevor Hogan, who also came off with a knock, should also be fit.

But Girvan Dempsey, who has missed the last two games with an ankle injury, is still a big doubt for the Edinburgh game.