Ian Gough and skipper for the day Justin Tipuric give their reaction to a narrow defeat at the RDS Showground on Friday night.
Speaking straight after the final whistle, Gough said:
“It was a super quick, super fluid first half, we had a lot of ball. In the second half it became more about the set-piece. They got a bit more flow in their game but I thought when we had the ball we put them under pressure. We came here with a few changes in the team but we really put down a marker I thought.
“We put a lot of pressure on the Leinster lineout early on and they lost a couple, a few near their line. They looked like they were struggling but they grew into the game whereas we lost our flow in the second half. It’s unlike us, normally we remain calm and keep our concentration.
“There’s things to work on in training but the lineout is an area of our game that has been good but we had a blip tonight and we’ll need to get that sorted.”
Meanwhile, try scorer Tipuric added:
“We knew it was going to be a tough game, and in the end, it did come down to the forwards and we just missed out. Their scrum was a bit stronger than ours. I think on another day we could have won it.
“It was an outstanding experience to be captain to be honest. The boys were outstanding, the support they gave me was unbelievable.
“We always aim for a win but we’ll take a losing bonus point tonight.”