Leo Cullen says he was pleased at how his Leinster side "kept their focus" in their win against Gloucester, but wouldn't be drawn on whether their 57-0 victory raises questions about the structure of the Heineken Champions Cup.
The four-time champions were in control from start to finish in their nine-try win to maintain their perfect start to the competition, with 99 points scored in their opening wins here and against Racing 92.
Ronan Kelleher and James Lowe scored a pair of tries each, while Josh van der Flier, James Ryan, Luke McGrath, Jordan Larmour and Caelan Doris also crossed in a whitewash against the Premiership side.
The result seemed inevitable before the game, with Gloucester resting their frontline players and sending a weakened team to Dublin, with George Skivington's side instead prioritising their Premiership meeting with Leicester Tigers on Christmas Eve.
Cullen was keen to focus on his own team after the game.
"We can't really control that," he told RTÉ Sport, when asked about whether it was a bad look for the competition.
"So, from our point of view it's just about putting in a decent performance.
"We've had a challenging enough couple of weeks if you think about it. A couple of weeks ago here we had to deal with a red card, and the lads rallied really well. Last week we had our travel challenges, and this week the conditions... it's a nice night but the surface is tricky.
"I thought the lads kept their focus really well, and that's the pleasing bit from our point of view.
"We scored some good tries in the course of the game and just got the job done, that's the most important bit. What other teams do around selection, we can't control, so from our point of view it's great we've got 10 points from two games, and it puts us in a really good position."
"You can't blame Leinster for the opposition that they're playing against..." - Jamie Heaslip says Leo Cullen can take a lot from tonight's 57-0 win against Gloucester #RTErugby #LEIvGLO #HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/7VjilnlsjZ
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) December 16, 2022
With maximum points from their first two games, and a very healthy tally of tries, Cullen's side look well placed to be one of the top seeds in the knockout phase, and with this season's final at the Aviva Stadium, they could have home advantage right through from the Round of 16 until a potential final if they get that far.
And having lost out on home advantage in the quarter-final last season due to their cancelled game in Montpellier, Cullen says he wants his side to be ruthless every time they're on the pitch.
"If you remember this time last year we didn't make a trip to France, and suddenly we're chasing the situation, and it meant we didn't get a home draw later in the competition.
"We'll have a totally different challenge in Round 3 when we go to Gloucester. They're a proud team and will come strong at us. We're back to URC action next week, which is a slightly different challenge for us, but we played first up this week, so guys will get a a chance to rest and recover over the next few days.
"We get challenged all the time in our domestic competition. If a team, for whatever reason, don't name a full-strength team, we just deal with it as best we can.
"We think we'll definitely have sterner challenges in the competition, for sure, but we just have to be able to control what we can.
"We've come through the game relatively unscathed in terms of bangs and knocks, that's the most important thing. We've build up a decent points difference, so just have to take the positives and move on."
