Win puts slip-ups in context

Pool six/Leinster 20 Toulouse 13:Leinster's victory at the RDS inspired a little post-match introspection on the part of the hosts, inclined briefly to dwell on the losses at Murrayfield and on an earlier visit to France in the present Heineken European Cup campaign. Winning on Saturday did not exorcise those ghosts; rather it conjured them up again.

To wallow in thoughts of what might have been would do a huge disservice to what Leinster achieved in beating Toulouse, and the province would do better to look ahead to bearding the Leicester Tigers in their Welford Road den next Saturday.

Mathematically it's still possible for Leinster to make the knockout stage but realistically it appears a forlorn hope. Edinburgh have improved appreciably, manifest in home wins over Leinster and most recently Leicester, but away from their Murrayfield citadel - they visit Stade Ernest Wallon next weekend - have been easily beaten.

Leinster's coach Michael Cheika knows, meanwhile, the priority for his side is to ensure they can avail of any largesse that might fall into their laps. He will demand first and foremost that they beat Leicester without recourse to the connotations.

He'll pretty much be looking for a repeat of the performance that saw Leinster account for Toulouse more convincingly than the final score at the RDS suggested. The home side would not have been flattered had they achieved a four-try bonus point, and the fact they did not can be attributed to a forward pass, a knock-on and a lack of composure and precision on three or four other occasions.

Leinster produced some brilliant passages of play, splicing open their opponents with strong, direct running and clever interchanges between backs and forwards in what was arguably, in the main, their best display of the season.

The only cavil was that they did not ruthlessly exploit this superiority on the scoreboard.

The three-time European champions had arrived with the brittle mindset of a team aware that winning was not a prerequisite - a bonus point would suffice. And when Leinster tore into them from the outset, the French seemed disconcerted, something to which their captain, Fabien Pelous, alluded in the aftermath.

"We were little boys on the field," he said. "I am very disappointed with the spirit of our team in the first half. I think some of our players came to play a match of rugby, not to win a match of rugby."

Toulouse seemed distracted and perturbed initially by Leinster's physicality. Pelous was reduced to administering a kindergarten kick on the shins to Stanley Wright. And their tighthead prop Jean-Baptiste Poux could not resist the temptation to land a cheap shot to the kidneys of young Luke Fitzgerald.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that it was these two Leinster players on the receiving end of Toulouse's frustration. Wright was magnificent in every facet of the game: in the tight, in the loose, in tackling and in carrying.

The Cook Island prop has endured some offensive personal criticism from some quarters, but his recent performances offer the most eloquent of responses to his detractors.

Wright, nursing a groin strain, had not trained all week but his commitment to Leinster's cause was inspirational and explains why he is so highly regarded, not only as a player but also as a person, by team-mates.

Cian Healy's introduction at half-time was a tactical one by Cheika and provided another compelling glimpse of this youngster's potential.

Several eye-catching forays in the loose will have particularly appealed to the Leinster supporters in a crowd of 16,752, but it was his discharge of the more mundane and traditional duties that drew most praise from the coach.

Fitzgerald also demonstrated his burgeoning talent in grabbing two tries, showing brilliant footwork and a keen awareness of the try line in what were not routine finishes.

Jamie Heaslip won the man-of-the-match accolade and was again in the van of another excellent performance by the pack, the secondrows Malcolm O'Kelly and Leo Cullen doing a huge amount of unselfish graft.

Toulouse did eventually rouse themselves in the second half but outside of their try, from replacement Yves Donguy, the only one of their number to inspire a hint of panic in the Leinster defence was their superb right wing Vincent Clerc.

Leinster led 10-3 at the interval, the try coming while the Toulouse secondrow Gregory Lamboley was in the sinbin. Leinster had elected to kick a couple of penalties to the corner and were eventually rewarded when from a scrum Brian O'Driscoll's one-handed flick was picked up off his toes with the dexterity of a slip-fielder by Felipe Contepomi.

The Argentinian linked with Fitzgerald, who slalomed back against the grain of a scrambling defence to force his way over.

Contepomi added a fine conversion to an earlier penalty, while the sole response from Toulouse was an injury-time penalty from outhalf Valentin Courrent.

There was more grit to Toulouse's play in the second half but it was Leinster who struck on 55 minutes with a second try.

O'Driscoll and Contepomi took play into the French side's 22, Gordon D'Arcy threw a long cut-out pass to Fitzgerald and the wing finished intelligently by stepping inside the cover.

Contepomi converted brilliantly from the touchline and would add a super drop-goal in injury time.

The score was a panacea for Leinster nerves shaken by Donguy's try - a product of great handling and exploitation of the short side by Romain Millo-Chlusky and Cedric Heymans - and Courrent's conversion.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: Contepomi pen, 3-0; 31: Fitzgerald try, Contepomi con, 10-0; 40(+1): Courrent pen, 10-3 (half-time: 10-3); 55: Fitzgerald try, Contepomi con, 17-6; 69: Donguy try, Courrent con, 17-13; 85: Contepomi drop-goal, 20-13.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; L Fitzgerald, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, R Kearney; F Contepomi, C Keane; S Wright, B Jackman, S Knoop; L Cullen, M O'Kelly; S Jennings, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: C Healy for Knoop (half-time), G Easterby for Keane (51 mins), B Blaney for Jackman (68 mins), S Keogh for Gleeson (71 mins).

TOULOUSE: C Poitrenaud; V Clerc, M Kunavore, F Fritz, C Heymans; V Courrent, B Kelleher; D Human, W Servat, JB Poux; F Pelous (capt), G Lamboley; Y Nyanga, T Dusautoir, S Sowerby. Replacements: JB Elissalde for Kelleher (half-time), R Millo-Chlusky for Lamboley (53 mins), J Bouilhou for Nyanga, S Perugini for Poux (both 56 mins), Y Donguy for Kunavore, V Lacombe for Servat (both 63 mins), G du Toit for Courrent (69 mins). Sinbinned: Lamboley (23 mins).

Referee: W Barnes (England).