Leinster head coach Leo Cullen says the result far outweighed performance, as his side eased to what he described as a "scrappy" BKT United Rugby Championship quarter-final win against the Cell C Sharks at the Aviva Stadium.
The top-seed Leinster kept their drive for a URC and European double alive with a 35-5 win against the South Africans, who never looked like causing an upset.
Even with the visitors taking an early lead after a Grant Williams try, Leinster quickly responded through Caelan Doris, and after building out a comfortable 21-5 half time lead, they eased their way through to the last four.
"Pleased to be through, it was a bit of a stop-start game I thought," said Cullen.
"The Sharks started well, and had a lot of intent in their play which we knew they would have.
"We settled down, Caelan got in for a good try and they lost Mapimpi to the sin-bin at the same time which is a double whammy for them. We scored a couple of other good tries in the first half."
With nine changes from last week's 41-22 win against Toulouse in the Champions Cup semi-final, Leinster never hit the same heights as they did against the French side, but Cullen (below) says it was understandable that they didn't hit top gear in a game that was littered with lengthy delays.
"It was a pretty low ball in play time overall I think in the game, there was scrums, resets at the scrums and it was messy. There were a few drizzly showers as well which made it difficult to play at times. Overall we're pleased, pleased to be though.
"There was always a chance our team this week would lack a little bit of cohesion. We're pleased with how they applied themselves this week. It’s always hard, the dynamic of you play in a semi-final of the Champions Cup and then you go into a quarter-final of a different competition.
"There’s a big build-up and a comedown, and it’s a short window."
Despite dominating the scrum, the South African side offered little in the way of attacking threat, and while they did get in for a second half try through Rohan Janse van Rensburg which brought the score back to 28-12, it was disallowed after a TMO review, with James Venter sin-binned for a dangerous challenge on Andrew Porter.
And Cullen says while the performance was far from perfect, he was pleased with how his side kept scoreboard separation from the visitors.
"They missed some chances, the Sharks, which meant we were always far enough away in terms of the scoreboard.
"There are moments in the game, the scoreline I don't think reflected the game. For us it was about making sure we get through to the next round, and come through relatively unscathed with a few bangs and bumps."
On those bumps and bruises; Tadhg Furlong was withdrawn at half time, with an issue Cullen says was "nothing major", but his replacement Cian Healy limped off late in the game with a leg injury.
"We brought Cian on but he had to come off at the end. We aren't 100% exactly sure what is up with him, but we will get him checked out. He is probably the more immediate worry at the minute, but hopefully he is not too bad."
Notably, second row James Ryan was seen wearing a protective boot when he stood on the sideline before the game, a worrying sight just two weeks out from the Champions Cup final against La Rochelle.
And Cullen was coy about the status of the lock's foot injury when questioned after the game.
"I think he was using it as a fashion statement," he laughed.
"He's OK, I was told. I was surprised to see him in a boot myself, he’s OK, yeah."
