Schmidt happy despite some frustrations

Leinster ran out impressive winners of their Pool Three clash with Bath at Aviva Stadium but they conceded 27 points in the process and that’s not something which head coach Joe Schmidt was entirely happy with.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game, he insisted the late concession of tries shouldn’t be overlooked.

“Yeah, it always matters.” Schmidt insisted. “You want to have some respect in your line, particularly in a big stadium like this, with the crowd support the way it is behind you.

“I thought we constructed some very good play today and scored some very good tries. I take my hat off to the players for that but I think we lost our way in the last 20 minutes.

"When you’re 30 or 40 points up, that can be prone to happening but we’d like to try to push past that and be more disciplined than that and show a little bit more composure.”

Being clinical and composed is something which the coach has tried to instil in his team and for much of this match, his team were exactly that.

“Yeah, I certainly think we were that in the first 50 or 60 minutes,” added Schmidt. “I was really happy with the first five tries and to build the pressure on the scoreboard in the way that we did.

"There were a few frustrations out there both for the players and for the coaching staff with a little bit of inaccuracy in that last 20 minutes.”

But the result leaves Leinster in a very strong position and very much in control of their pool.

“It’s nice to have a six-point buffer after Glasgow drew with Montpellier. Glasgow are on 10 points and it was nice not to give Bath a bonus point.

"It’s up to Glasgow to chase us down and we’re in the strongest position so, with that in mind, it’s a great position to be in.

“But, come January, we know we have to dig in and try to keep fighting to make sure we win the pool.

“The precision was back and I think that’s a credit to the players. The mental application was first class. It was first rate during the week and it gave me some quiet confidence but I’m never really super-confident that we’ll come out and deliver.”