Jack Conan admitted that Leinster were left frustrated with their first-half display at Aviva Stadium before powering past Sale Sharks to reach the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals.
The province held a narrow 7-3 advantage at half-time thanks to an early Dan Sheehan try, but it was the second half when they gained momentum to run out 43-13 winners to book a last-four encounter with Toulon.
"Frustration is definitely the word," Leinster and Ireland back row told TNT Sport as he reflected on the first half against Sale.
"(We) probably let them off the hook a lot, anytime we got down into an area where we could have put points on them, we coughed up the ball pretty easily.
"A bit of indiscipline around the ball and giving them easy penalties, letting them off the hook.
"It felt like they didn't have to work too hard for putting scores on the board. So that was disappointing on our end."
However, Conan was much more pleased with how he and his Leinster team-mates handled the challenge of improving in the second half.
"We said we'd hold onto the ball, make sure the distances are better, make sure we keep bringing the same intent (and) look after the ball on the ground and we'd be in a good spot," he said.
"I thought we did that in spades then the second half."
