While Leinster were able to release some steam from the valve in Saturday's United Rugby Championship quarter-final win against the Glasgow Warriors, it would be foolish to suggest they got anything more than a 40 minute contest.
They were given a real test in the opening quarter of an hour and looked jittery in possession, before the reckless elbow of Richie Gray opened the door for them to play some rugby.
From the moment Caelan Doris scored their fifth try at the start of the second half, the result was beyond doubt, the early score eliminating any lingering chance of a shock comeback at the RDS.
Instantly, thoughts turned towards the Bulls in the semi-final this Friday night, so much so that Tadhg Furlong was replaced immediately after that Doris try, having complained of a stiff back.
Leo Cullen didn't seem overly concerned about the injury in the immediate aftermath of the game, while we will find out later today whether Johnny Sexton, Hugo Keenan, James Lowe and Rónan Kelleher are on course to return from the knocks they suffered in the Champions Cup final nine days ago.
The 12-try, 76-14 thrashing of a hopeless Glasgow will be good for confidence, but not much else, as the stampeding Bulls come to Dublin.
"It's not ideal, that's fair to say," Cullen replied, when asked if he'd have preferred a tougher challenge against the Warriors.
"But you've got to deal with what you've got to deal with, and for us it gives some guys a bit of confidence. Does it really matter going into next week? No, because it's just about getting through to the next round, whether that's by a point or more than that."
In stark contrast to Leinster, the Bulls booked their ticket to Dublin with a dramatic win against the Sharks in Pretoria, Chris Smith's dropgoal with the final play of the game giving them a 30-27 victory.
Jake White's side have come a long way from the start of the season, when they began their URC journey with heavy defeats to Leinster and Connacht.
The former Super Rugby champions won nine of their final 10 games of the regular season, with their only defeat coming against the Stormers.
And Cullen admits he and his coaching staff began their homework on the South Africans even prior to last weekend's quarter-finals.
"Ideally we don't get ourselves in that situation next week where it's tight at the end of the game.
"So we did a good bit of work this week on the Bulls. Sharks are a team that we played more recently, Bulls you have to think back to round one of the league back in the Aviva, so it's a long time ago that we played them."
Despite their slow-burn season, the Bulls side that will return to Dublin this Friday will be similar in terms of personnel to the group that looked so flat at the start of the campaign, with 11 of the team from their semi-final win starting in the 31-3 Round 1 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.
"I was coming to the end of my first year in coaching. He gave me a fair bit of advice. I went away to a Six Nations coaching conference, it would have been 2015. He was very, very helpful to me in terms of someone with bits of advice and understanding his philosophy on the game as well so we've come up against each other with Montpellier in Europe as well."
Many of the faces will be familiar though, among them former Ulster and Munster pair Marcell Coetzee and Arno Botha, who will likely team up with Elrigh Louw in an immensely powerful back row.
"The backrow that they have; Coetzee, he was such a stand out player for Ulster as well all know. Look back at all his games he’s coming out with man of the match awards and big moments in games, he scores tries close in. Physically very, very strong on both sides of the ball, so he’s one who is a very, very influential presence on their team.
"The halfbacks are good, a strong kicking game and they’ve a strong back three in terms of their kick, chase, aerially and from breaking ball as well, the speed and pace that they have.
"Harold Vorster in midfield very, very strong a direct player probably one of the keys guys similar to (Marcell) Coetzee (below) for them.
"They are sort of a complete team. They have a cohesive team as well so they don’t change the team that much and Jake is a wily old coach, he's been around the block," Cullen added.
The Leinster coach also revealed that White, the Bulls director of rugby and former Springbok World Cup winning coach was something of a mentor for him early in his coaching career.
"I was coming to the end of my first year in coaching. He gave me a fair bit of advice. I went away to a Six Nations coaching conference, it would have been 2015. He was very, very helpful to me in terms of someone with bits of advice and understanding his philosophy on the game as well so we’ve come up against each other with Montpellier in Europe as well.
"He’s plenty of experience of being here in the RDS so he will know what’s involved. I’m sure he’ll have a few tricks up his sleeve.
"Just in terms of his vision as he laid out leading into that World Cup period, over that extended period before that and the belief he instilled, some of his philosophies about the game, how he approached the start of the game. It’s pretty vast in terms of what he was discussing.
"But he’s been good for the Bulls in terms of the experience he’s brought, the continuity, and stability around selection.
"He's doing it for the right reasons as well because he loves the involvement, I don't think he's doing it because he needs to, but because he loves the game.
"It's great to still have those experienced characters who are coaching in our league as well, because they bring a huge amount to it."
