Rugby: Never in doubt? Hardly, yet Gary Ella retained his typical Australian equanimity after Leinster's somewhat desperate last-ditch 20-17 victory over Cardiff and, for the most part, was once again content to hail the gutsiness of his players while pinpointing the five-day turnover from their win away to Sale as a contributory factor in their performance.

"It was a gutsy effort in the end, though it became a dog rough night. We still have a lot of work to do but we'll have a recovery session tomorrow and will have longer to prepare for the Biarritz game.

"We won, that's the main thing and we'll take the four points," added Leinster's coach. "They (Cardiff) defended outstandingly well and it was very much like the effort we put in against Sale last week."

As was also the case a week before, what pleased Ella most was his players' temperament in another pressure match. "We never lost our cool. The boys were still able to stay in control of what they were doing. To not give away any penalties when they were under so much pressure was an immense credit to Cardiff."

There wasn't a trace of sarcasm in Ella's remark, although he'd have been entitled to given the referee Tony Spreadbury seemed barely to have even a passing interest in where the offside line might be, and allowed all manner of "fringing" around the edges of rucks.

"I don't think the five days' preparation helped us. With such little time it was very hard to get the guys up again for another tough match," said Ella.

The curse which has afflicted the various owners of the Leinster number 10 jersey even extended to Felipe Contepomi yesterday.

Bothered by his ankle in latter weeks, on examination yesterday it transpired that he had a floating bone in the joint and was fast-tracked into hospital in the afternoon for an operation. However, it is not expected to sideline him for more than three weeks.