Sexton: We'll take Toulouse win with 'pinch of salt'

An accomplished performance against the reigning and five-time Heineken Cup champions but Leinster can't afford to take the victory over Toulouse without a "pinch of salt", according to captain Johnny Sexton.

A heavy Top14 schedule, three trips to Ireland and a 100-minute match against Munster meant the French were understandably a touch jaded.

Out-half Sexton kicked three penalties and three conversions as the URC champions beat their French visitors 40-17 at the Aviva Stadium.

"We need to be better again in the final because at the end of the day, Toulouse played 100 minutes against Munster, had to travel home, had to travel here again," said Sexton, whose side will face La Rochelle or Racing 92 in the decider in Marseille in two weeks' time.

"So we've got to take it with a pinch of salt. This isn't where we wanted to get to. We want to win the final so we've achieved nothing yet."

All true but when they review on Monday, they’ll see many more positives than negatives against what was still a high-pedigree outfit.

"I think it was good," said the 36-year-old, who put in another man of the match showing.

"We did some really good things. What I was most pleased about was that we didn't let the mistakes faze us.

"Going 7-3 down when we were dominating the first few minutes, we didn't let that get on top of us and we just bounced back.

"When they scored the try to make it a two-score game again, we bounced back again.

"How we came back from the bad moments was probably what I was most pleased about.

"We did some good things and built on last week's performance. We dug in last week, it wasn't great in terms of how we used the ball but we built on it."

Head coach Leo Cullen was also pleased with his day’s work.

"Yeah, lots of good stuff