European Cup Pool Five/ Bath 23 Leinster 35: A vibrant, vintage Leinster tore Bath to shreds and in the process didn't just extend their European odyssey into April, but made a statement of intent to their detractors and perhaps even to themselves. This was their make-or-break game of the season. They can go to Toulouse with a spring in their step in every sense for, when they touch heights like they did yesterday, they can hurt any team in Europe.

It wasn't just that Felipe Contepomi, Brian O'Driscoll and the Aussie brains trust's kindred spirits worked openings, moved the ball at pace and found space on this tightest of grounds, but that to a man the pack again stood up to the vaunted Bath juggernaut.

The first statement of intent was to repel an attempted Bath maul off the game's first lineout. With the piano-shifters Reggie Corrigan, Will Green, Cameron Jowitt and co working hard, it didn't shift an inch.

The second came with a length-of-the-pitch try that was simply beyond Bath's imagination, and thereafter the psychic energy was all theirs.

If collectively they had much to prove, so too individually.

"You criticise that man at your peril," warned coach Michael Cheika during the week with regard to O'Driscoll, and sure he made a nonsense of the claims he was still a long way off his best with a typical all-action, all-purposeful display. He ultimately emerged as Bath's tormentor-in-chief, with his low centre of gravity, pace off the mark and offloading, as well as workrate at the breakdown. He's back.

Green, playing through the pain barrier, was predictably fired up on his first return to English soil and gave his best performance for Leinster, locking the scrum and contributing mightily around the pitch.

Cheika had gently massaged the ego of Keith Gleeson, omitted from the Irish squad during the week, and entirely predictably he gave a masterclass in all-round openside play, both at the breakdown and with the ball in hand.

Each referee has his trademark, and Nigel Owens is particularly hot on the tackled player not releasing. And so, with O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy augmenting Gleeson with their trademark, auxiliary-flanker play in midfield, the boys in blue won a couple of early relieving penalties.

There was also a three-pointer for Olly Barkley.

By then, though, Leinster's Argentinian maestro had already inspired the kind of daring start that perhaps only Toulouse would attempt. After another penalty for not releasing, Contepomi was ahead of everyone else in the ground when he took a quick tap 15 metres from his line and switched the point of attack. O'Driscoll released Hickie down the left wing and he crosskicked infield, where Shane Horgan was in splendid isolation to gather the bouncing ball inside halfway and run in under the posts.

After Barkley's penalty, Contepomi came knocking again. The intercept king in his days with nearby Bristol, Contepomi made a one-handed interception on scrumhalf Nick Walshe when Bath, as usual, attacked close in off the fringes. The Puma grabbed the ball in the air before scampering away from halfway, chased by Walshe. He added a good conversion to boot.

The first quarter hadn't been completed when Leinster struck again with a stunning try courtesy of the O'Driscoll-D'Arcy axis. Credit to the lineout, too, and O'Kelly for the soft hands in providing Easterby with off-the-top ball from Brian Blaney's accurate throw, and to Contepomi for a deft, popped offload as O'Driscoll cut back through on the angle from inside halfway. A couple of sidesteps later he straightened and passed inside to D'Arcy, then took the return, before finding, of all people, Green on his shoulder to take the offload and score.

Barkley having landed his second penalty, the only disappointment was that Leinster didn't press home an advantage when Andrew Higgins was binned for a professional foul when tackling from an offside position, and both Jowitt (following a clash of heads with Matt Stevens) and Girvan Dempsey (legitimately, if fiercely, taken out by Michael Lipman after winning a turnover penalty), were lost to the cause by the start of the second half.

Although Barkley ended a quiet third quarter with another penalty, Leinster came to life once more. O'Kelly again called for and supplied quick ball from Blaney's throw off the top at the tail, D'Arcy and Miller set good targets, and when Leinster came back right Contepomi skipped Gleeson, his run checking the drift, to hit O'Driscoll, who dummied inside two defenders in laying on a try in the corner for Horgan, who'd held his line well.

They were nearly in again but for Hickie failing to hold another run and offload by O'Driscoll, before Horgan, Emmet Byrne and O'Kelly, involved for a second time, put together a stunning passage of continuity from the forwards. Long passes by Guy Easterby, who had another fine, industrious game, and Rob Kearney released O'Driscoll, who made ground, released Heaslip and then picked up the lay-off to score in the corner.

Just for the hell of it, Contepomi landed his second successive touchline conversion.

The late introduction of Chris Malone, supposedly the plodder compared to Brian Ashton's kindred spirit Barkley, sparked Bath into life, and the replacement outhalf released Higgins (badly missed by Hickie) for the supporting Chris Stephenson to score. And amid a spate of hometown penalties, Matt Stevens rumbled over, Malone converting both.

By the end, Leinster were effectively playing for Munster's right to host a quarter-final and despite a few scares they delivered the favour. Munster owe them one.

SCORING: 6 mins: Horgan try, Contepomi con 0-7; 10: Barkley pen 3-7; 13: Contepomi try and con 3-14; 18: Green try, Contepomi con 3-21; 25: Barkley pen 6-21 (half-time 6-21); 58: Barkley pen 9-21; 60: Horgan try, Contepomi con 9-28; 69: O'Driscoll try, Contepomi con 9-35; 74: Stephenson try, Malone con; 78: Stevens try, Malone con 23-35.

BATH: M Stephenson; A Higgins, T Cheeseman, S Finau, F Welsh; O Barkley, N Walshe; D Flatman, L Mears, M Stevens; S Borthwick, D Grewcock; A Beattie, M Lipman, G Delve. Replacements: Bell for Flatman (half-time); P Short for Bell, A Williams for Walshe (both 70 mins); C Malone for Barkley (72 mins); J Hudson for Borthwick (73 mins). Sinbinned: Higgins (32 mins).

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, D Hickie; F Contepomi, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Blaney, W Green; B Williams, M O'Kelly; C Jowitt, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: E Miller for Jowitt (36 mins); R Kearney for Dempsey (half-time); E Byrne for Green (66 mins); D Blaney for B Blaney, A Byrnes for O'Kelly (both 79 mins); K Lewis for Contepomi (80 mins).

Referee: N Owens (Wales).