It was another great advert for the United Rugby Championship, said Leo Cullen, but Leinster's dramatic win over Connacht was a "bit too exciting" for comfort.
After last weekend's derby against Munster went down to the last play, the latest interprovincial clash, between Leinster and Connacht at the Sportsgrounds last night, served up a breathtaking battle that the visitors won with a try in overtime.
Ciarán Frawley scored the late winner after the hosts had overturned an 11-point second-half deficit.
"Overall I don't know what ye think but it’s a great advert for the game," he said to reporters following the 24-22 win, which put his side back on top of the standings ahead of a two-week break for the Champions Cup.
"We talked about it last week. It’s great, isn’t it?
"Two provincial teams providing great entertainment. It was a bit too exciting. At 78 minutes I’m thinking, what am I going to say to the media if we’d lost the game?
"But we've won the game, it’s a credit to the players but wind the clock back and you go whoa, lads come on!"
Frawley's winner also secured the bonus point after earlier tries from Charles Ngatai, Jason Jenkins and Ronán Kelleher.
Cullen added: "It was incredibly dogged all the way through, defensively and in attack, and two tries and suddenly they’re in the ascendancy and the calls are going their way and they’re on top.
"Eventually we get a crack at the end and we come out with a win but we’re all sitting there at 78 minutes, if we get a penalty what will we do?
"Will we go for a draw. I think the general consensus was to go for the win.
"It didn’t come down to that situation but at least the players are brave to take the space and be composed enough to execute under pressure.
"It’s a great team try at the end which was very pleasing but there’s lots of parts to the performance you look back at and go, we’ve plenty to work on."
Meanwhile, Pete Wilkins (above) was left with frustrated and reckoned his side, who had Cathal Forde and Peter Dooley sin-binned, would have been deserving winners had they held out in the final play.
"You know, we've talked all season about you get what you deserve," said the Connacht head coach.
"I think rugby is a game like that where there's that many small moments and blocks in the game that you if you get enough of them you come out on the right side of it.
"But you know what, I thought we deserved it this evening, and I thought just the way we responded to Leinster's positive periods of momentum, the way we responded to the yellow cards, the way responded to the scoreboard when we went behind on that.
"I felt like we had done enough and I think the biggest frustration is that we bounced back so well from those challenging moments within the game, not to get one final go of bouncing back, and that's obviously the nature of the game but that's something we'll have to process.
"But [I'm] incredibly proud."
Watch highlights of the weekend's action on Against the Head, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, Monday 8pm
