Leinster senior coach Jacques Nienaber insists the province are yet to reach their peak as they head into the business end of the season.
Friday night's bonus-point win away to Ulster has lifted the province up to third place in the URC, while their chances of securing a top seed in the play-offs were given a real boost over the weekend after defeats for the Stormers and Glasgow Warriors.
With those teams set to meet each other on Saturday in Cape Town, Leinster know they should be able to climb a further place in the table this weekend if they get the better of Benetton in Italy.
The defending champions survived a mini-Ulster fightback on Friday night to defeat their neighbours 29-21 in Belfast, and despite resting the majority of their frontline stars they arguably played their best rugby of the season for the opening 50 minutes as they raced out to a 29-0 lead.
But Nienaber insists they still have a lot to improve ahead of their Champions Cup semi-final against Toulon next week.
"The mood is probably realistic, I would say," the South African said of Friday’s win.
"I think if you look at the game, I think there's a lot of things that we did well.
"But if you look at it from a realistic point of view, there's a lot of things that we didn't do well. So there's still - as individuals and collectively as a team - a lot of stuff that we have to improve on. But also banking that there was a lot of good stuff.
"So I think that's the realistic look at it. I think if you look at it from just the outcome point of view, you probably would say, 'listen, great win on the road, you got your five points, didn't give Ulster a point’, which was good if you look at how condensed the log is. So that is a good outcome for us.
"But I think if you look at it from a realistic point of view, like we did this morning in our review, we know that it was far from perfect."
With an away trip to Italy, plus home fixtures versus the Lions and Ospreys rounding out the URC regular season, the province will be confident of breaking into the top two in the table, which would give them home advantage for a quarter-final and potential semi-final at least.
They also have home advantage for their Champions Cup semi-final next week after Glasgow were beaten by Toulon in the quarters.
But after being stung by Northampton Saints in the last four of the competition in 2025, Nienaber doesn't believe his side are "peaking" just yet.
"Everybody is talking that ‘things are falling into place’," he added.
"I think that, if you look at it realistically, at the performance this weekend against Ulster, and you've got the emotion of the win and the result out of the way, I think the reality is that it was far from perfect. And it could have gone the other way.
"So for us, I got the question a little bit earlier, 'are you guys peaking?’ I don't think we're peaking.
I think we're working as hard as we can individually and as a collective. Like I've mentioned now, collective through the whole squad individually, players trying to improve their individual fundamentals, rugby fundamentals.
"Obviously, hopefully, as the season goes on, you will get better and improve. So is that peaking? I don't see it as peaking.
"We still need to improve and work extremely hard if we want to go forward in the URC and in Europe."
Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris and Andrew Porter remain doubts this week due to injury, although it’s unlikely the Ireland international trio will be risked ahead of next week’s Champions Cup semi-final.
James Lowe (above), meanwhile, is stepping up his recovery from the groin injury which ended his Six Nations in Round 3.
The winger is still a week or two awy from being available, but was involved in Monday’s training session at Leinster’s UCD base.
The province have also confirmed new contracts for out-half Harry Byrne, back row James Culhane and second row Conor O’Tighearnaigh, the latter of whom earns his first senior deal.
Byrne, who has climbed ahead of Sam Prendergast in the province’s out-half pecking order this season, has played 15 games this season, scoring 109 points.
Follow our live blog on Munster v Ulster in the URC on Saturday from 5.30pm on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Follow our live blog on France v Ireland in the Women's Six Nations on Saturday from 8.10pm on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
