Complacency is rarely an issue for Leinster, but if Leo Cullen had any concerns about his side's state of mind coming into this week's Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Leicester Tigers, he only has to look back at some of last weekend's games for a reminder of how tight the margins are.
While there were ultimately no shocks among the eight final results, two of the tournament's big hitters were given real scares by underdogs, living to tell the tale.
Saracens came from 12 points down in the first half, and were also behind by 10 shortly after half time in their eventual 34-20 win against the Ospreys, while the champions La Rochelle almost saw their title defence ended abruptly by Gloucester, with a Teddy Thomas try in the final two minutes seeing them survive by the skin of their teeth.
With a top seed secured in the BKT United Rugby Championship, the bulk of this Leinster squad will be able to rest up following this game and prepare for what they hope will be a Champions Cup semi-final weekend in three weeks time.
And Cullen says thy have nothing on their minds only booking their semi-final spot.
"You can only control so much, your own thing, so that's how we go about the week’s preparation and making sure that we do everything we possibly can to be in the best possible shape," he said.
"There is always a challenge with a six-day turnaround, there will be more of a mental load, physically there is only so much you can do to go again. You are second guessing some selections, even in the team there, there are a few things that have been thrown up. The complacency bit – our guys are desperate to be successful in this tournament and I don’t sense any complacency."
The province never looked in any real danger of crashing out last week, comfortably managing their way past Ulster 30-15 at the Aviva Stadium.
But Cullen says there are still a lot of areas of improvement for them to make.
"We had a lot of opportunities five or 10 metres out. Sometimes you won't get as many opportunities as that so that’s probably the big piece. It is a little bit of composure at that end of the field," he added.
"And the basics always have to be good. So when it comes to these big games, it’s quite often who does the basics better, the nuts and bolts and parts of your game that is, it’s capitalising on those opportunities because we spent a good bit of time in Ulster territory before half-time where we got a little bit impatient a couple of times. So definitely that patience there be nice and clinical, stick to the system of what we want to try and do. That’s probably the big piece coming away from last week."
Their opponents Leicester have a reputation for being a kick-first team, using the boot to build territory and force errors.
And after head coach Richard Wigglesworth picked his side, which sees veteran Mike Brown included at full-back, and the towering Freddie Steward named on the left wing, Cullen says it's clear where the visitors are most dangerous.
"Aerial is the first thing that springs out when I see it," he said of the Tigers team.
"You've got a guy who is 6ft 5in [Steward] on the wing, so again I think they’ll go the air on that side of the field. Mike Brown, a tonne of experience a very competitive bloke in general, so that competitive piece, that experienced part.
"The breakdown, the way they go hard after the ball, it’s all or nothing really, isn’t it? They will go harder in that area with some of the jacklers that they have. Obviously Wiese is back in to start, Montoya, Reffell, so they will go hard at the ball.
"That’s a big part of their game, part of their DNA, trying to slow down some of the things we would like to do. That would be my thinking."
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