European Cup/Treviso - 9 Leinster - 25: A win is a win is a win. That mantra provided the essence of post-match dissertations at Stadio Comunale di Monigo mid afternoon on Saturday.
Leinster coach Declan Kidney and captain Reggie Corrigan articulated their happiness at negotiating a tough encounter, gently chiding the media for dumbing down the merits of Benetton Treviso and highlighting positive aspects of the team's display.
These utterances were for public consumption. Privately, there will be concern that Leinster's performance was wholly inadequate for a team which purports to be serious Heineken European Cup aspirants. The fact the Irish province didn't manage to garner a bonus point may provide a sense of disappointment that grows more acute in the weeks and months ahead. The building blocks Leinster required for their trip to Treviso may be summed up in three words: patience, precision and pace.
They boast the latter quality in abundance throughout the threequarter line but without the other two ingredients it's like having a radio on a motorbike: it looks good but it's not all that effective. Much of Leinster's back play lacked cohesion and degenerated into solo thrusts; even when gilt-edged opportunities arose to counter-attack they failed to recognise them.
It's one thing to be sensible in putting boot to ball in certain situations but quite another when the inclination to kick is first on the option menu.
Leinster played a great deal of this game with tunnel vision. Treviso, for all their gritty resolve, were vulnerable out wide but survived because their opponents didn't have the patience to work opportunities, or the precision to clinically exploit the chances presented.
Only once did the visiting backs offer a master-class in counter-attacking and that came in the 84th minute. Running from deep inside their own 22 off first phase, Denis Hickie checked briefly before taking his man on the outside, raced 50 metres and then looked inside to find Brian O'Driscoll who accelerated under the posts.
Girvan Dempsey's defection half an hour before kick-off, the victim of a severe stomach upset from the previous night that hadn't cleared, wasn't ideal but to use it as an excuse would be to paper over the cracks.
Hickie lined out at full back with Gary Brown coming into the team on the left wing and the latter had a fine game on a lean diet of possession. He looked sharp and incisive, something that couldn't be ascribed to Leinster's back play in general.
The Leinster half-back pairing of Brian O'Meara and David Holwell enjoyed a mixed afternoon. O'Meara was occasionally guilty of dithering and did spurn a five-on-two overlap but was prepared to get down and dirty when his pack gave him less than ideal ball. He competed bravely on the deck.
Holwell's bedding-in period is ongoing. The New Zealander is still learning the defensive system while the timing and direction of his punting in the first half was a little askew. As the game wore on, though, he made some lovely breaks and showed great hands in the build-up to Shane Horgan's try.
To be fair time will offer a better handle on his ability.
It was a curate's egg performance from the pack; excellent in the set scrums but woeful in the lineout where Leinster coughed up seven turnovers either through misdirection or infringement. It denied them a regular platform to launch their driving maul that had been so effective in securing their first try of the match through hooker Shane Byrne.
The collective shuffling gait of the Leinster pack to lineouts is reminiscent of a pensioners outing getting off a coach; slow, and deliberate.
Leinster needed to up the tempo, not just in this facet but throughout their game. There is mitigation in that it was hot on the pitch with players losing between four and five kilogrammes but the staccato nature of the match suited Treviso.
The work ethic was there from the pack with significant contributions from Emmett Byrne, Leo Cullen, Eric Miller, when he came on as replacement, and arguably their outstanding performer, Victor Costello. Once again he was asked to make the hard yards and once again fulfilled that remit.
Treviso began brightly, dominating the opening 20 minutes and deserved more than the six points they mustered through the boot of centre Marius Goosen.
As their captain Alessandro Troncon observed: "Leinster did what they had to do, scored when they had the chance to score. We didn't do that. We have to be quite happy but we now know the level we have to play at."
The Italian side made far too many mistakes, especially when they had Leinster rocking, and under-utilised the game's more entertaining presence in livewire full back Brendan Williams.
Leinster gradually clawed a foothold into the match with a brace of penalties from Holwell and Shane Byrne's try six minutes before the interval.
When Goosen kicked his third penalty just after the interval to reduce the deficit to 11-9, an Italian mugging was a brief possibility but when their character was questioned Leinster found the appropriate response. Horgan's try should have been followed by another couple, but option taking and decision making undermined decent approach work.
O'Driscoll's injury-time intervention put a gloss on a performance that for a long time had more of a matt finish. The scope for improvement is huge but then so is the capacity to do so. Kidney has suggested this group of players had made little strides in each of the four matches they have played this season.
When Bath come to Lansdowne Road next Saturday, that graph will have to rise sharply.
Scoring sequence. 4 mins: Goosen penalty, 3-0; 7: Goosen penalty, 6-0; 15: Holwell penalty, 6-3; 24: Holwell penalty, 6-6; 34: S Byrne try, 6-11. Half-time: 6-11. 47: Goosen penalty 9-11; 59: Horgan try, Holwell conversion, 9-18; 84: O' Driscoll try, Holwell conversion, 25-9.
BENETTON TREVISO: B Williams; D Dallan, W Pozzebon, M Goosen, S Legg; F Smith, A Troncon (capt); G Faliva, F Ongaro, S Costanzo; G Klerck, M Wentzel; E Pavanello, S Parisse, S Orlando. Replacements: S Palmer for Parisse (29 mins); F Sbarglini for Faliva (47-59 mins); D Dal Maso for Orlando (59 mins); H Mazino for Costanzo (59 mins); A Gritti for Pavenello (73 mins); Sbaraglini for Ongaro (73 mins); T Visentin for Goosen (73 mins); D Carpente for Legg (76 mins.
LEINSTER: D Hickie; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, G Brown; D Holwell, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, E Byrne; L Cullen, M O'Kelly; A McCullen, V Costello, S Jennings. Replacements: E Miller for McCullen 69 mins; B Gissing for O'Kelly 80 mins. Yellow cards: M O'Kelly (Leinster) 45-55 mins.
Referee: N Owens (Wales).
