URC review: Snyman debut showing gets Leinster up and running, while Munster and Connacht dig deep

Three wins from three, 15 points from a possible 15, a double-World Cup winner bedded in, things couldn't be much better for Leinster.

Well, they are the bullet points.

But a closer look at the games suggests Leinster are not purring yet, and that’s no harm.

"We’ll have to get a hell of a lot better," said Leo Cullen after beating Edinburgh by two points on the opening day; "clunky" was how they described the victory over Dragons, while after Saturday’s 35-5 success at Benetton, during which they went 52 minutes without scoring, the head coach admitted they "lost our way a little bit".

The province have always had to juggle their significant resources at various points of the season due to having so many players on the national team, while the current Emerging Ireland tour took 12 players off their roster after round one. The above faults in performances have mitigating circumstances.

Indeed, in the long run, it’s arguably better for Leinster to have to battle for each point they gain.

Some put Leinster’s failure to win silverware for the last three seasons partly down to how easy they found life in the URC regular season.

Prior to last season they finished top of the table four years in a row with no second-place team closer than six points.

Ciarán Frawley starts and finishes a sweeping move, as Leinster race into a 14-0 lead