Leinster - 29 Bristol - 23:Quite how Bristol came to within a score of winning this game almost beggared belief. Leinster didn't sustain fifth gear throughout the 80 minutes by any stretch of the imagination, and almost pulled up before the chequered flag too soon, but ultimately they won their opening European Cup match a good deal more convincingly than the scoreline suggests.
That the winning margin didn't induce such comfort at the end was a product of their rustiness, the conditions, and a place-kicking return of seven out of 12. By comparison, Felipe Contepomi landed five from five, and these things have a tendancy to count against you.
In their 10-game winning run at home in Europe, Donnybrook has toasted plenty of Leinster's champagne rugby, but the day's incessant rain, which lifted just about for the first quarter, demanded more prosaic stuff than that.
The set-pieces proved the bedrock of the win. In the lineout, Shane Byrne's pin-point throws and the clean takes of Malcolm O'Kelly ensured plenty of attacking ball, while the scrumagging would have had Roly Meates purring.
Aidan McCullan, ably filling Eric Miller's boots, took on plenty of ball and made hits, as did Victor Costello.
Superior discipline counted, too, Bristol compounding an 18-10 penalty count against them with a couple of yellow cards.
Leinster still played the more progressive rugby, thanks in no small measure to the excellent support play of Keith Gleeson.
The arrival of winter - whatever about a tardy new sponsor's match ball - on the day was always likely to be a leveller and the apprehension in another near-capacity Donnybrook crowd was palpable as Leinster struggled to turn increasing territorial supremacy on to the scoreboard.
Leinster had to defend well in a nip-and-tuck first quarter, with Byrne defending smartly and aggressively at the front of a close-range Bristol lineout maul, while big hits by O'Kelly and Costello typified their early enthusiasm.
Despite the greasy ball, Leinster patiently and persistently attacked through the hand, whereas Bristol mostly went through the air and chased hard. And though he again held some excellent catches, even Mr Dependable, Girvan Dempsey, occasionally fails to hold bars of soap coming out of clouds.
An adventurous, hanging kick-off by Brian O'Meara up the middle was reclaimed by Shane Byrne and Leinster won a penalty. Victor Costello took a quick tap and charged before feeding Aidan McCullen who made further ground. The sequence set the early tone. Reducing the risk of handling errors, Shane Horgan was the early target runner and twice he was supported close in by Keith Gleeson.
Further drives by Byrne and McCullan enabled O'Meara to land his second penalty attempt, but a good kick ahead by Daryl Gibson after Dempsey had been taken out of position put Bristol on the front foot.
Denis Hickie defended that one, while Gordon D'Arcy on the other wing was on hand to defend a Contepomi grubber kick shortly afterwards. In between the defensive heroics, the Argentinian outhalf did land a levelling penalty.
Another Horgan run was halted by Bristol but the Leinster centre moved it on for Costello to breach the gainline. A penalty followed, only for O'Meara to hit the upright with a straightish 25-metre effort. O'Kelly then did well to take on static ball rarther than ship it on, and when Alex Brown was binned for not rolling away, O'Meara restored the lead.
Although Leinster's scrum pressure against seven men exerted a toll, O'Meara and Contepomi traded further penalties in the next 10 minutes. Instead, ironically, it was while their talisman, Brian O'Driscoll, was having running repairs that their patience was rewarded.
A clever change of tactics helped, with the Leinster pack driving Bristol back 40 metres in a sustained lineout maul. Warner then skip-passed to Horgan, who fed Dempsey, and D'Arcy looped around him to take the full back's pass out of the tackle and put Hickie in.
Few sides in the competition would have prevented that try, and O'Meara fittingly made it a seven-pointer from near the touchline.
Another penalty and another miss by O'Meara left it 19-6 at the interval, and though Contepomi landed his third penalty soon after the resumption, Leinster's response suggested the game was over.
When Bristol coughed up ruck ball, Warner probed the blindside, whereupon Costello picked up and charged 10 metres for the line, swatting three defenders like flies on the way. It was simply vintage Victor - and O'Meara converted.
The game seemed won at that juncture and, perhaps subconsciously, Leinster thought so too. In any event, the game drifted into a longeur, with neither side making much happen until a couple of tactical substitutions seemed, unusually for Leinster, to destabilise their efforts, while the previously quiet Agustin Pichot began upping the tempo for the visitors.
Another turnover put them on the back foot and Bristol kept their attacking width through the phases to stretch them to breaking point. Despite a good last-ditch tackle by O'Driscoll, from the recycle a Gibson dummy made Hickie slip and the rugged ex-All Black centre took a double hit to score. Contepomi converted.
With O'Meara off, Warner missed a kickable penalty before D'Arcy made no mistake from 40 metres. But again Leinster lapsed. Despite some good scrambling defence by Dempsey, more width from Bristol back and forth culminated in a brilliant pick-up and pass by Pichot put Contepomi over.
Remarkably, Contepomi's conversion took Bristol to within a converted try of winning the game. One senses even they couldn't believe it.
There was no real scare of it happening and, with the last kick, D'Arcy hooked a penalty so far wide, almost taking the shortest route to the Old Wesley clubhouse, that it looked deliberate.
