While we don't doubt that anybody in the Munster camp didn't believe they could dismantle Leinster upfront, it's always nice to see these things played out in front of you. Just for a bit of reassurance, like.

Leinster coach Cheika was in no doubt about the paucity of his first side's efforts when speaking afterwards.

The head was down, the body language wasn't good but at least his side did manage to resurrect their line-out in the second-half. And true, they did manage to win the game reasonably comfortably in the end to take a firm grip at the top of the Celtic League table.

"I think we would have been bottom of the Celtic League with zero points if we performed like we did in the first-half, " said the coach.

"It was poor, very poor and you've got to acknowledge that. But we showed good character because they came out in the second-half and realised they had let their crowd down, they let themselves down and went out and did a job."

Not before a serious halftime dressing down, you'd imagine. Whatever happened to the Leinster line-out in the first-half must be put under serious scrutiny this week, because it wasn't as if they were failing to secure their own ball by inches. At times it was by yards. On at least two occasions in the first half an hour, Brian Blaney threw the ball into his line-out and there were no Leinster jumpers up in the air. Not a sign of them.

Those particular problems would point to a mix-up in calls but over the course of that first period, every lineout problem that could go wrong, did go wrong. And this was Leinster's firstchoice pack, the one that will take the field against Munster on Sunday, barring any injuries of course. Paul O'Connell, Donncha O'Callaghan and the rest of the Munster pack, the best line-out operation in Europe, must be wetting their lips in anticipation of having a go at them.

The scrum got a bit of a doing in the first-half, too.

Cheika confirmed afterwards that Will Green started the game ill at tight-head and was substituted at half-time, but not before the Leinster scrum was shunted around the place. The introduction of Emmet Byrne at half-time undoubtedly tightened things up but still the ball from the set-piece wasn't of the quality that Leinster want.

The knock-on effect of no clean possession was that the Leinster backs couldn't go out and play. They did score yet another wonderfully inventive try through Cameron Jowitt early in the game, again off first phase, but for the rest of the half they were chasing shadows as Llanelli put the ball through multiple phases.

Interesting to note, too, from a Munster point of view that the Leinster defensive line appeared to grow pretty confused and ragged the longer the Welsh side held onto the ball.

In saying all that, Leinster did show superb spirit to almost sellotape their game back together in the secondhalf and produce the victory.

They're still scoring tries with very little possession and while it's a worry they're not getting the ball in the first place, it must be a nice trick to have in the back pocket all the same.

And so to Sunday. "We'll take it like any other game, " said Cheika. "We'll take it day by day with our game knowledge and role management with regards playing this game and dealing with the pressure of the match. We've done a lot of work already, we won't do it all in a week, and hopefully we get the right strategy, get everybody knowing what they're at and make sure we're fresh."

The line-out will be a priority, though. Despite the prolificacy of the backs, it's hard to see them beat Munster without it functioning at something close to perfection.