Champions Cup primer pool best preparation for latest Leinster bid

There's no such thing as perfection in sport but Leo Cullen will be well pleased this Monday morning after establishing a firm base at the foot of the Champions Cup mountain.

Saturday’s 47-21 win over Bath, the Premiership leaders, saw them top pool two and, thanks to Sunday’s results, end up as the second seed for the knockout stages.

That means a home run to a possible final in Cardiff at the end of May.

There’s work to be done first but the Dublin play-offs have proved a relatively easy path to negotiate for the boys in blue over the last three years.

It’s the manner of how they have dug out their four group-stage wins, against Bristol, Clermont, La Rochelle and Bath, that will please the Leinster coaches most.

It looks like they have escaped almost injury-free and have their blessed work-ons to work on for the next few weeks.

Against the top two in England, they ran out handsome winners but there was graft and grit needed at various stages. The ability to change the momentum of the ties mid-match crucial.

Their French opposition, thankfully, challenged them in different ways; Clermont exposing how much work their lineout needed and Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle drawing a defensive masterclass. Jacques Nienaber, take a bow.

Leinster failed to picked up bonuses against their Top 14 opponents and finished on 18 points from a possible 20.

Last season it was 19 with the win in La Rochelle the only time they failed to win by more than 10 points

In 2022/23 no pool rival got within three converted tries of a victory against Leinster.

The previous season, only a pandemic-forfeited game against Montpellier, cost them full marks.

On the field, they put 109 points on Bath in two games and 89 on Montpellier at the RDS.

Simply put, it was too