RUGBY:SO, TWO weeks after being the bulk suppliers to that minor little event in Cardiff, the Leinster and Munster players will renew acquaintances in Limerick next Saturday in a Thomond Park summit meeting between the reigning Magners League and Heineken Cup holders.

That much was confirmed long before the end at the RDS yesterday evening as Leinster ultimately emulated Munster’s bonus-point win in Glasgow 48 hours earlier with four second-half tries in a 32-6 win over Ulster.

In the process, Leinster thus completed their seventh win a row at the RDS and their seventh in a row in the League, while also extending their long unbeaten run over Ulster to 10 games, stretching back over Cheika’s entire reign and Declan Kidney’s, all the way back to Gary Ella’s season in charge here.

No less than Munster, they approach that game in fairly rude health, with the Leinster coach intimating that the quartet of Brian O’Driscoll, Luke Fitzgerald, Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip – who paraded the Six Nations and Triple Crown trophies to the 15,914 crowd yesterday – will be back in contention.

“It’s going to be a tough game down there, we understand how difficult it will be,” Cheika said of next Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash, before hinting, somewhat intriguingly, that next season’s demands may mean less availability for the frontliners in games such as these. Word is that the provinces might have their Test stars for barely half their league campaign next season.

“You just don’t know with the ever increasing schedules of international players it could be one of the last chances you get to see full interpros, because they’re getting rested more and more and there’s a more demanding schedule.”

Recovery, with two days less of a turnaround, will be a more pressing concern for Leinster. “We’re very hurt from the match up here when we got beat at home,” said the Leinster coach in reference to Munster’s 18-0 win at the RDS in September, “and just prepare ourselves accordingly so that we aware of what’s needed if we’re going to have a chance against the European champions in their own back yard.”

Admitting that yesterday’s bonus point was, very definitely, a bonus, Cheika paid less heed to their win in Musgrave Park last season. “Every game is different in this, what would you call it, love story between us and them. We’ve got a lot of respect for them as a team and their players. It’s going to be a really good game down there. If we get our mentality and get our preparation right, then we’re going to be in with a shout. If we don’t get our mentality right, then we better look out, because they’re a good team. You saw that again on Friday night.”

As for yesterday’s slow-burning victory, Cheika said: “In the first half we went okay but we were being nullified by their play at the ruck. They came out with an obvious strategy to kill our ball at the ruck and obviously with a new (Italian) referee felt they could take their chances on that. At half-time we knew we just had to improve the ruck part of our game and if we could do that it could possibly open up more space for us. And in the end we had good patience, and we were able to finish off, but I’d say the improvement in the rucking part of our game was the most pleasing thing in the second half.”

The Leinster coach praised the work, both in defence and attack, of the Shane Horgan-Girvan Dempsey-Isa Nacewa back three which, with Fitzgerald and Kearney to return to the mix, is “going to be a much sought after position over the next few weeks”. Which is putting it mildly.

The one concern is that CJ van der Linde appeared to aggravate the badly damaged toe which has sidelined him since he tore ligaments in mid-January. The Springbok prop’s latest injury was being scanned last night.

Cheika’s counterpart, Matt Williams, bemoaned his team’s finishing. “We had about six line breaks in the first half and didn’t take our chances, and then fell off about nine tackles in a 15-minute period. Then our lineout was in trouble and we turned the ball over at a midfield scrum two minutes into the second half. And Elsom was head and shoulders above every other player on the park. Elsom was quite magnificent.”

As for next week in Thomond Park? “Ooh, a tough call mate. I think I’d probably go for Munster.”