Leinster 'frustrated, relieved' to maintain winning run after Ospreys escape

Leo Cullen admitted relief was the dominant emotion as Leinster scraped past Ospreys to maintain their winning run in the BKT United Rugby Championship.

The league leaders, missing 18 players on Six Nations duty, scored tries through Luke McGrath, Charlie Tector and Rabah Slimani but were pushed all the way by Mark Jones' side in a 22-19 win.

Only for a missed touch kick after Justin Tipuric won a late penalty, Leinster may have been in real danger of suffering a first defeat of the season.

"We were pretty fortunate they didn’t find touch at the end there because otherwise it would have been a nervy last few minutes. We were pretty relieved," said Cullen, whose team are 10 points clear of champions Glasgow after 11 rounds.

"We would have liked to have played better.

"We try to put in a perfect performance every week and we were far from perfect, but we got an outcome.

"I wouldn’t say we are elated with how we went, even though we won the game.

"We are frustrated, but probably relieved to come away with four points. That is pleasing considering all the moving parts we have going on at the moment."

Ospreys had been in a fine run of form with Friday's loss in Swansea their first defeat in five games.

"We know they are a proud club, the Ospreys," added Cullen.

"They have been on a great run of form and I thought they put in a big performance.

"They kept coming back. They were unbelievably dogged throughout, right to the very end there.

"They dug in well and they put us under pressure. It was like they had another man on the field at the end in terms of the contest at the breakdown and the level of energy they had."

Leinster are next in action against Cardiff at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, 1 March.

Elsewhere, Ulster boss Richie Murphy