James Ryan: Leinster not worrying over penalty count

If the layperson thought that discipline would be the main crease for Leinster to iron out after last week's win away to Bristol Bears, there hasn’t been a knee-jerk reaction within the walls of Leinster’s HQ.

The province got on the wrong side of referee Pierre Brousset at Ashton Gate last week, conceding 17 penalties – more than double that of the Bears – while they also picked up three of the four yellow cards handed out by the Frenchman.

With discipline being a hot button issue for Ireland during the Autumn Nations Series, and that Irish team being so heavily populated by Leinster players, there is a body of evidence across the last five weeks to point to that the number of penalties and cards being a concern.

"I wouldn't say it [discipline] is a huge thing for us because obviously there's some issues with the scrum and the referee has his own interpretation of stuff, so I'm not overthinking it either when it comes to discipline," Leinster's James Ryan said, ahead of this evening’s Pool 2 meeting with Clermont Auvergne at Aviva Stadium.

"I think maybe just starting with a bit more cohesion that probably is the big one."

Even allowing for interpretation at the scrum, where they lost four of their 12 put-ins to penalties or free-kicks, the province were treading on thin ice before giving up two yellow cards for Rónan Kelleher and Max Deegan on 27 and 29 minutes, which Bristol quickly took advantage of, as Max Lahiff scored their opening try.

The reason Ryan and Leinster aren’t panicking over their penalty and card count is largely down to how they responded to going down to 13 men.

While they did concede straight after the second yellow to Deegan, Leo Cullen’s side instantly moved up several gears with Jordan Larmour scoring