The scoreline, varnished in the 87th minute, is slightly flattering. Leinster are still some way short of what they're aiming for, but as the injury-hit Dragons wilted toward the end of their second match in four days, Leinster began to cut free and gave glimpses of better things to come.
The key, as Michael Cheika had intimated this week, had been to inject more tempo into Leinster's play but this really only came up a notch with the introduction of Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie past the hour mark, and in particular the switch of Felipe Contepomi to outhalf.
Taking his cue from Horgan, straining for some rugby and full of aggressive running, Contepomi began attacking the gain line as the pair sought to free their hands in contact. Suddenly Leinster support runners were coming onto the ball and getting in behind the Dragons' swarm defence and it looked a different game for a more vocal but disappointing crowd of about 3,000.
"I'm satisfied with the performance even if the scoreline was a little bit flattering, but there were improvements in the areas of our game we worked on during the week," commented Cheika. "We were eliminating some of the errors we've been making and it's a nice way to go into our break."
The Dragons, already without Ceri Sweeney, were further unhinged when Craig Warlow fell ill with a stomach bug hours before the game. Aled Thomas, a once-capped under-21 Welsh outhalf, was called up. They also lost hooker Steve Jones at the break, while Leinster's Adam Byrnes was carried off with a medial-knee-ligament injury.
A feature of Leinster's display was missed touch kicks. One such miss by Girvan Dempsey, in an otherwise impressive outing, led to Sione Tuipulotu fumbling, gathering, chipping and adroitly palming the ball to Hal Luscombe, who sent Leigh Hinton over. Hinton converted.
The Dragons, playing with more width, asked more of the questions in the first half, but easily the most impressive aspect of Leinster's display was their defence; pushing up hard, driving ball-carriers back or forcing a spillage. In possession though, things were more problematic.
It started with setpieces. Their scrum never settled, and they never put sufficient pressure on an unblemished Dragons throw. The Dragons' defensive lineout was more aggressive, and they were generally less discriminate about giving away penalties; fringing, blocking off the ball, often pushing up offside. The penalties flowed, and Contepomi landing three to inch Leinster in front.
Leinster's first try came when Dempsey worked a clever switch with Christian Warner. Ben Gissing might have given Robert Kearney a run first time round, but after more strong running by Warner and Guy Easterby's offload sent Kearney away, the winger stepping inside Kevin Morgan for his third try in three games.
When Andrew Hall was binned for blatantly coming in from the side, Contepomi again tagged on the penalty, though within four minutes Kearney was also carded for killing ruck ball, before Horgan and Hickie came in to inject pace and purpose.
Contepomi kicked another penalty before clever counter-attacking led to a Luscombe try, Contepomi's boot punished further Dragon' misdemeanours before a big hit by Jamie Heaslip, a tapped penalty and long pass by Brian O'Meara, and good hands by Hickie and Kieran Lewis put Dempsey over with the last play.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6 mins: Hinton try and con 0-7; 14: Contepomi pen 3-7; 27: Contepomi pen 6-7; 36: Contepomi pen 9-7; 40: Kearney try 14-7 (half-time 14-7); 52: Contepomi pen 17-7; 65: Contepomi pen 20-7; 72: Luscombe try, Hinton con 20-14; 80: Contepomi pen 23-14; 83: Contepomi pen 26-14; 87: Dempsey try, Contepomi con 33-14.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; G Brown, K Lewis, F Contepomi (capt), R Kearney; C Warner, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Jackman, W Green, A Byrnes, B Gissing, C Potts, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: D Blaney for Jackman, S Horgan for Warner, D Hickie for Brown (all 62 mins), R McCormack for Green, B O'Meara for Easterby (both 62 mins), S Crawford for Byrnes (77 mins). Sinbinned: Kearney (56 mins).
NEWPORT GWENT DRAGONS: K Morgan (capt); G Wyatt, H Luscombe, S Tuipulotu, L Hinton; A Thomas, G Baber; D Maddocks, S Jones, R Thomas, I Gough, L Charters, A Hall, J Ringer, R Oakley. Replacements: R Bryan for Gough (25-32 mins) and for Oakley (46 mins), A Brown for Jones (half-time), A Black for Maddocks (46 mins), J Forster for Ringer (53 mins), Ringer for Gough (65 mins). Sinbinned: Hall (52 mins), Tuipolutu (82 mins).
Referee: Andy Ireland (SRU).
