Leinster captain Jamie Heaslip cut an unusually frustrated figure after this Champions Cup defeat. Echoing the words of his coach Matt O'Connor, Heaslip felt the winning of the tie was well within Leinster's compass but for inaccuracies in possession and cheap penalties which afforded Harlequins easy exits from their own half.

Nonetheless, Heaslip was not of a mind to concede that Leinster had backed themselves into a corner and had to win next Saturday at the Aviva in the return meeting, even if almost certainly they will have to now.

“No I don’t think we’ve backed ourselves into any corner. We’ve been in this position before. We got a losing bonus point, that’s not too bad in this competition, and obviously it’s a big game, a six point turnaround and we’re going to have a hell of a challenge now. They’re going to be fired up. Their tails are going to be up coming into this game and we gotta learn from those mistakes, flip it around and go again essentially.

“You never know the different permutations that the future is going to hold. But obviously playing at home in Europe you want to win. I just wish you could tell the future.”

Starkly contrasting

As to why their execution let them down, Heaslip delved into the past, and the starkly contrasting 40-7, five tries to one win in Northampton on the same weekend a year ago; albeit Northampton’s 18-9 win in the Aviva a week later demonstrates how much a team can turn things around in a week.

“I wish I knew, you rewind to this time last year, for example, and we were on the money for everything. And then sometimes lads are so, not excited or giddy, but so want to enforce themselves on the game that sometimes they force it too much.

“I thought, in general, at times we held on to the ball very well and caused a lot of problems and got a lot of return. But we forced a lot of penalties inside their half, I thought.

“Our maul went quite well and we caused them problems when we got shape. Our ‘D’ in general was pretty good. I didn’t feel a whole lot of heat although it could be a lot better, I thought we soaked a lot at times as well so we have got to change that mindset. It’s frustrating not winning. We’ll take the bonus point, though.

“We just gotta look forward now. We know where we are at now and we know how these games can go. You look at last year when we went so well against Northampton and then they turned it around the following week. We have to look at that and move forward.”

That Leinster, once famed for their potency, had again failed to score a try did not unduly concern Heaslip.

“No, I thought we were applying a lot of pressure and were forcing them to give away a penalty or we got gain line, and that’s what was happening quite a lot. Obviously it’s frustrating that we didn’t get a score. Sometimes those kind of games happen, but I thought at 21-18 to be honest I thought ‘we’re in here, it’s either going to be a draw or a win for us’.

Eternal optimist

“But I’m the eternal optimist, but then we gave a penalty away and they stretched it into a six-point game in the last few minutes, and then obviously it was a little bit more frustrating. We’ll take the bonus point but I don’t think there’s a lot between the sides. That’s what I’m trying to get at, at the moment.”

Yet given they scored the game’s only two tries, albeit one an intercept, Heaslip accepted that Harlequins were entitled to feel worthy winners.

“They were the better side. We made more errors than them. They got two tries. Yeah, I can’t disagree with you there. But I do feel we gave them a lot of entry points into the game, that if we’re tidier we can force the game a little bit more in our favour to be honest, I suppose that’s that I’m trying to get at.”

Advantage

Refuting the notion that his team had the advantage now, Conor O’Shea said:

“They are so physical. When you look to the bench and see Zane Kirchner coming on. They are very physical and very abrasive.

“We didn’t hold the ball as much as we wanted to in the first half and really take the game as much as we could to them. Our kick-offs we’ll have to look at but I haven’t really had the chance to think about Leinster.

“When we got the lead we gave away a few dumb penalties that let them back in the game. There will be tiny margins next week. They are an outstanding side. Winning the Pro 12 last year was a bad year for them. We know it will be an unbelievable contest and the players will enjoy it and it will be a nice place to work tomorrow but it’s half-time.”