Planet Rugby: Leinster's 21-year-old scrumhalf Cillian Willis admitted that his team-mates rallied around him to make his Heineken European Cup debut against Gloucester at Lansdowne Road on Saturday as comfortable as possible.

The youngster acquitted himself very well in what was the biggest game of his career. "I tried to stay as relaxed as possible in the build-up to the match, just preparing myself as well as possible and trying to keep my mind off the game until a couple of hours before kick-off.

"Guy (Easterby) and Chris (Whitaker) were very good to me, helping me out with my video work and helping me through the whole week." His cousin, Leinster captain Brian O'Driscoll, was among several players who offered words of encouragement prior to the match.

"He had a couple of words, was very positive and so were a few of the other senior lads, helpful and encouraging."

O'Driscoll took some credit, tongue in cheek, for his cousin's robust performance. He pointed out: "The cuz did very well. (I told him) to just relax and enjoy it. I know how tough he is (as) we used give him a bit of treatment when we were younger. I'm taking some of the plaudits for that.

"Myself and his two brothers did a bit of toughening-up back in the days, and I think that's standing to him. He's got a rocket of a pass and he'll get better and better."

For his part Willis enjoyed his tussle with Gloucester's Peter Richards, the Leinster player giving as good as he got as the pair frequently jostled.

"Those are the little battles that you have at scrumhalf and I enjoy that part of the game." His abiding memory of the day? "I probably don't have just one, more so the general buzz from being involved. I'll certainly never forget it."

Dempsey's kept waiting

Question: When is your 50th European Cup appearance not your 50th? Answer: When it's your 49th.

Leinster fullback Girvan Dempsey was due to be presented with an ERC elite award - it's a cap - for making his 50th appearance for Leinster in Europe against Gloucester on Saturday but it transpired prior to the match that there had been an error.

He was credited with playing against Llanelli at Stradey Park in the 1998-99 season and although down on the official teamsheet withdrew from the game prior to kick-off because of injury. He was replaced by Gordon D'Arcy.

Leinster's official statistician Des Daly was able to clear up the error in the ERC official records and so Dempsey will have to wait until next Sunday's game against Edinburgh to reach the milestone.

In fairness to Westgate, who look after the official records, they do an excellent job and the odd aberration is entirely understandable.

Hill's farewell is a blur

It seem that a couple of the winning Waikato team will have to watch the video to fully recall their 37-31 victory over Wellington in the final of the Air New Zealand Cup at the weekend after shipping heavy knocks. Steven Bates and David Hill are the men in question.

Bates, the Waikato skipper and blindside flanker, received a clatter from an unspecified source after five minutes and by his own admission was a passenger for the remainder of the half. "I took a smack in the head . . . so it's a bit of a blur but I know we won, I'm pretty happy with that."

He admitted he wasn't much use at lineout time. "I had Marty Holah out there telling me the lineout calls. I didn't know the calls throughout the whole game but it worked out well."

Hill, who leaves for English club Bristol on Thursday, was hammered by Wellington captain Tana Umaga; a split second later he flicked the ball to Soseni Anesi and struggled to get his bearings for the handy conversion.

"I'm not really recalling the try," he would later remark while waiting to complete a post-game drugs test. "I started walking to the sideline, I thought we'd scored in the corner."

The player though struck a perfect seven-from-seven attempts to help inspire his team to their first rugby title since 1992.

Smith shows his anger

London Irish coach Brian Smith is miffed at the late change of referee that saw Christophe Berdos switched from the London Irish-Llanelli game on Friday night to the Leinster-Gloucester game at Lansdowne Road on Saturday.

The French official can't have been too chuffed himself as he ended up having to receive seven stitches following a clash of heads with Leinster replacement Owen Finegan in the 74th minute.

Smith's ire was directed at another Frenchman, Romain Poite, who took charge of the game at the Madejski Stadium, one that London Irish lost.

The Australian fumed: "We were to have one of the best referees in France for our game but ERC in their wisdom decided the Leinster game was more important. They bumped our referee and slotted this bloke in."

Smith railed against a certain incident involving flanker Declan Danaher that ended in a yellow card, describing the decision as a joke.

"The fact that we had this bloke is a joke and proves we're second class citizens in Europe," he complained. " Poite's performance left a lot to be desired. We were ranked the third best team in England last year so why were we bumped for Gloucester.

"ERC is being run out of Dublin so are favours being done for Leinster? Are we getting a fair crack? I don't know. We'd done all our preparation for a different referee."

His Llanelli counterpart Phil Davies insisted that the switch in referee hadn't affected his side. "We had a profile on the first referee and a profile on the second referee, so it was no big issue for us."

Rugby speak

"I don't think anyone had seen Cillian (Willis) play until last week. It wasn't a bad effort from him. Towards the end of the game (would have) burst his bubble a little bit. He made some decisions that weren't great by giving the ball away. The kid really went out there and mixed it with one of the best halfbacks going in Peter Richards. He didn't take a backward step as you saw by all the pushing and shoving going on I was very happy with him and he should be proud of himself. It was a great effort." Leinster coach Michael Cheika on scrumhalf Cillian Willis.