Celtic League/Leinster 23 Edinburgh 8:Almost 10,000 rugby followers descended upon the newly renovated RDS Showgrounds on Saturday evening in desperate need of a pick-me-up. Fortunately for them, the Dr Jekyll version of Leinster turned up.
Three impressive individual tries, all from players that represent this team's future, turned a far-from-flawless performance into a comfortable victory that allowed many of the crowd to head early for neighbouring hostelries - still plenty of sorrows to be drowned, remember.
Of course, the now almost obligatory Leinster stumble when in pursuit of a bonus point presented a desperately poor Edinburgh outfit with a late consolation try.
But let's focus on the positive. The teenage prodigy Luke Fitzgerald received possession once, at pace, inside the opposition half, straightened a lateral attack and brushed off a tackler before racing to the line. Class.
Jonathan Sexton and Phil Godman exchanged and missed penalties, leaving the score 8-3 at the interval.
Sexton - who like Rob Kearney has noticeably bulked up in pre-season - played with a new maturity and intent and added another penalty early in the second half before Fitzgerald's silky contribution was eclipsed by that of Gary Brown.
The right winger received possession inside his own half and immediately stood up his marker before zipping past another and then showing the good sense to grubber kick 20 yards down the line. It became a straight sprint, which he won, to make it 16-3.
The visitors are a poor excuse for a professional outfit and never looked capable of turning this match into a genuine contest.
The former England coach Andy Robinson, who interviewed for the vacant job in Edinburgh recently and is in Dublin working as an analyst for Setanta Ireland, was watching from the main stand.
Leinster rolled out their Argentine tighthead prop Juan Gomez, but it appears a couple more weeks of conditioning are required before the definitive decision can be made on his true worth.
"Juan has got to get used to the rugby," said head coach Michael Cheika. "He hasn't played pro rugby at this level before. He has had an international game in Argentina but I want to get him into the tight matches.
"Stephen Knoop (lately of Connacht) did okay when he came on. The idea is not just to do okay though; we're looking to do better than that. We're happy with the win but are definitely looking for significant improvement next week (away to Cardiff)."
Keith Gleeson played like a man keenly aware of the threat to his number-seven jumper, with some big hits, a couple of rumbles and decent work on the deck.
Shane Jennings replaced him on the hour but having missed the warm-up games through injury he has a bit to go yet. More will be revealed next week.
While Sexton was erratic in his place-kicking (three from five attempts), he did set up a late chase for the bonus point when bumping off Ben Cairns to cross under the posts on 70 minutes.
"Maybe he's seen Phil (Felipe Contepomi) try to run through too many brick walls in his time - but I thought Johnny played quite a good game," added Cheika.
The blot on the Leinster copybook came in injury time when prop Stan Wright flipped a pass over two would-be receivers and, via a bounce, into the waiting arms of Edinburgh winger Andrew Turnbull, who sped clear.
"That wasn't a real good bit of play there - a prop throwing the ball over the top - because we lost our clean sheet," said Cheika.
"I thought our defence was very good. We've been working on that very hard. We added a defensive coach (Kurt McQuilkin) this year. He's done quite a good job so far.
"We played pretty poorly really, at the breakdown in particular; we had patches of good play in the middle and then we broke down . . . but to do that and still score three good tries and a win is positive enough."
Scoring sequence: 9 mins: J Sexton pen, 3-0; 18: L Fitzgerald try, 8-0; 27: P Godman pen, 8-3 (half-time 8-3); 45: Sexton pen, 11-3; 49: G Brown try, 16-3; 70: Sexton try, con, 23-3; 80: A Turnbull try, 23-8.
LEINSTER: R Kearney; G Brown, M Berne, C Warner, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, C Whitaker; S Wright, B Jackman, JF Gomez; T Hogan, L Cullen (capt); S Keogh, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: D Toner for Cullen (blood, 13-17 mins); S Knoop for Gomez (51 mins); S Jennings for Gleeson (60 mins); C Jowitt for Keogh (65 mins), B Blaney for Jackman (67 mins).
EDINBURGH: N De Luca; A Turnbull, B Cairns, J Houston, A Maxwell; P Godman, B Meyer; A Allori, A Kelly, G Cross; M Mustchin, B Gissing; A MacDonald, R Ross, S Cross (capt). Replacements: R Grant for Cross (46 mins); G Laidlaw for Meyer, A Warnock for Godman (both 58 mins); C Hamilton for MMustchin (61 mins); R Reid for MacDonald, S Lawrie Kelly (both 64 mins); J Thompson for Cairns (71 mins).
Referee: P Fear (WRU).
