RUGBY:LEINSTER'S NOW perfectly honed ability to snatch a result from situations they appear to have made a mess of was evident again yesterday.

Escaping the Rec with an 18-13 victory over Bath can be put down to another hugely composed performance from Jonathan Sexton. Not only did the Irish outhalf land six penalties, his defensive interventions were timely, while his adroit game management was nothing short of world class.

But they shouldn’t have been so reliant on his right boot. The butchering of two certain tries in either half, coupled with Matt Banahan’s 65th-minute touch down, had the European champions chasing a winning score down the home strait.

They were undoubtedly assisted by Bath’s most influential player having a brain freeze. Newly recruited Springbok flanker François Louw was immense for the first hour, having a brilliant double hand in Banahan’s try. First he robbed Seán Cronin on the deck before regaining his feet to make a key offload in the subsequent counter-attack. Olly Barkley’s touchline conversion had the west countrymen 13-12 in front.

The belligerence of Leinster’s pack – where Cian Healy, Seán O’Brien and Kevin McLaughlin were immense – brought play deep into the Bath 22 and, with just seven minutes remaining, Louw needlessly dived through a ruck to concede a penalty near his posts. Sexton duly made it 13-15.

Banahan did a good impression of Shane Horgan to slap down the re-start but it was Eoin O’Malley who eventually snaffled possession. Louw tackled O’Malley, quickly rolling away only to throw an arm in Eoin Reddan’s path while blatantly offside.

The French referee Jerome Garces yellow-carded the shocked South African and the resulting penalty presented Leinster with sufficient field territory for their pack to close out the contest.

Really, it shouldn’t have been such a nervy finale. After a first half-line break, Rob Kearney offloaded to his left when Isa Nacewa was unmarked to the right with a clear run to the line. Then on 49 minutes, with the game evenly poised at 6-6, O’Brien ignored a glaring three-man overlap only to be hauled down by Bath outhalf Stephen Donald. The frustrations of the waiting Gordon D’Arcy, Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald were clear to see.

“We want to be a lot more accurate, a lot more aware of what everyone else is doing around us to make sure we link up and finish opportunities that we do create,” said Joe Schmidt afterwards.

“Against a quality team it’s that difficult to create opportunities the last thing you want to do is butcher them like we did today. We almost suffocated ourselves at times,” added the frustrated coach.

Atonement can come at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday but the facts remain comforting with Leinster still in control of Pool Three. Also, Montpellier are no longer contenders as the dud side Fabien Galthie fielded in Glasgow lost 20-15.

Munster continued on a similarly successful, if unconvincing, path with Ronan O’Gara kicking them to a 17-14 victory over the Scarlets in Llanelli on Saturday.

Unlike their previous two outings, they didn’t need O’Gara to intervene with any last-ditch drop goals as four penalties and a try by Niall Ronan were enough to paper over the cracks of yet another disjointed display.

“It’s a great position to be in but it’s not like we are running away with any games,” Paul O’Connell conceded. “Every one is a fight to the death and every game is a battle so, if you look at the score-lines, there is no fear of us getting ahead of ourselves.”

O’Connell has convened a “players only” meeting tomorrow as they seek to address some performance issues. The Munster captain, named man of the match, did single out the scrum, where BJ Botha was eventually helped off with cramp, for praise while he also mentioned Lifeimi Mafi’s contribution from the centre. Peter O’Mahony, as tends to happen in most big matches nowadays, was forced off but initial reports suggest he did not sustain a broken jaw.

“It wasn’t the prettiest of games to watch but needs must at this stage and we need to keep winning,” said Johne Murphy.

Ulster did what was expected of them with a bonus point victory over Aironi at Ravenhill last Friday night but Clermont’s 30-12 defeat of the Leicester Tigers yesterday is not what their coach Brian McLaughlin had hoped for.