WHATEVER ABOUT the quality of the performance, Leinster’s grit, guts and honesty of effort couldn’t be doubted. No one epitomised their willingness to match Wasps in the physical stakes and dig deep than Brian O’Driscoll, who was clearly hampered by a big hit from Ricky Flutey early in the game.

“He’s a pretty tough player, there’s no doubt about that,” said coach Michael Cheika. “I think there was a pretty physical presence in the game early on, all round, and we were able to stay up on our feet and fight our way back into it. Brian was a classic example of how the team was.

“He got hit early, I think he was out. He took a knock to the head, was able to recover, came back and got another one, and had to blood-bin and come back again. He was still contributing at the end of the game, and did some great defensive work. It summed up the team really.”

Cheika admitted that Leinster’s kick-and-chase game had to be addressed at half-time, and in the second period he felt Leinster could have kicked a little less.

“The kicks were okay, but the chase . . . the one where we let Lewsey through; Leo tripped over, but we’ve got to cover those guys, our quicker men.

“We tried to improve that, and we got a few better ones in the second half where we caught them behind the advantage line. We maybe just took the kick option – not too much more, but three or four more times than we should have, when we should have run at them.”

Regarding Rob Kearney’s ridiculous yellow card, Cheika commented: “I didn’t know you could get sinbinned for getting taken out over the sideline and getting punched in the head.

“The referee didn’t want to know about it, he stood off it totally, he didn’t want to know about it. He got caught by the assistant, he put him on the spot and he had to do something.

“From what I saw, he took the ball out, held on to it for a second. Then this other guy came and sort of tackled him on the ground, then these other two guys came over and cleaned him out. He didn’t really have a chance to do anything.”

The danger for Leinster, of course, was that they could put the cart before the horse and start chasing tries too soon and too loosely. “I think we’re just going to worry about trying to get on top of Edinburgh,” said Isa Nacewa. “They’ve played some pretty good rugby over the last couple of weeks, and we have to be up for it.

“We’re definitely disappointed that we didn’t come away with the win, but now we’ve all got to look forward to next week. We’ve just got to recover right, get our heads right come Monday’s training.”

The most honest assessment of the game, after being targeted by Leinster and given scant protection by either his team-mates or the French referee, came from Wasps’ scrumhalf Eoin Reddan. “It was probably very reflective of where both sides were. Leinster couldn’t afford to come here, throw the ball around and lose badly, and we couldn’t lose at all. I think both sides looked very cagey from that point of view, and when it’s a game like that there’s a lot of kicking, a lot of chasing and it’s tough on forwards’ legs. I thought both sides hung in there well.

“You look at some teams and they’re flying before Christmas and it comes to this time and they struggle,” he added. “If you’re going to be hitting a speed-bump or wobble, you need to be having it around Christmas, because then you can pull everything together and push on towards the end of the season. If you’re best form is in December, you won’t win a trophy.”

Amazingly, the two-time cup winners – including Lions head coach and assistant coach – did not appear to have made their players fully cognisant of the ramifications of denying Leinster a bonus point.

“The decision was made on the field and that’s it,” said Ian McGeechan. “Well, we were talking about ‘win first’, you know there’s another week to go yet, we have a tough ask in Castres next week. I think quite rightly someone was thinking ‘points on the board and let’s make sure it’s the win’. The other side is, ‘could we have gone for the lineout’, but the decision was made.”