Will Slattery

Just on your point about kicking it more, it's like...

After Leinster's bright start, the next chance they got was a 21-7 down because they made so many errors.

They almost didn't even have a chance to implement tactics like that because they made so many mistakes and gave Bordeaux so much entries into their 22.

Bordeaux's first three tries comes from Leinster losing a line out in their own 22,

Byrne kicking the ball out in the full, giving them a scrum on halfway, and then the Keenan touch, which gives them a five-meter scrum.

And then Harry Byrne knocking on Van der Vleer's turnover on their own 22 again.

So they didn't get any territory until it was 21-7, and then they had that very tired-looking attack that ended with Conan...

knocking it on when they were kind of trying to repeat the trick of the first attack in terms of going through the phase count, trying to get their forwards, making big carries.

But Bordeaux were just smashing them back.

There was a huge double tackle on Caelan Dorris that kind of brought that move to a close.

Yeah, well, certainly lots of scrutiny on the defensive system after that and after how last year's Champions Cup campaign ended as well.

Plenty more still to come.

Okay, Cian, there's one interpretation of Saturday's result, which is that Leinster's entire Champions Cup run this season was kind of a little smoke and mirrors-y.

Their pool performances were very scratchy.

I think they were very, very lucky to beat La Rochelle.

That's probably a 1-10 win, a 1-20 win the way that game unfolded.

They got the easiest last 16 draw against Edinburgh.

They got the easiest quarterfinal draw against Sale.

They got a home semifinal despite the fact that their third seeding meant that all three of those things probably shouldn't have happened.

They should have gotten more difficult games the whole way up.