THE sight of his stop-gap out half, David Holwell, leaving the pitch close with a cut head close to the end yesterday must have given Michael Cheika palpitations. With Jonathan Sexton already limping, and with Felipe Contepomi and Isa Nacewa still on the injured list, an addition to the current number 10 crisis was not in the script.

To the coach's relief, Holwell returned with no more than a large bandage, and all was well for the home side whose unconvincing victory moved them up to fourth place in the Magners League table.

It's already been a typical curate's egg of a season for Leinster. Sparkling in the Heineken Cup with maximum points from two matches, but well below par in their defence of the Magners title with three defeats in a row.

Shorn of as many as nine players who would be regarded as starters, yesterday's evening's game against the lowly Dragons was still an opportunity to re-establish some positive vibes both for the league season and, more importantly, for Saturday's visit of Castres.

Any expectations that an understrength Dragons would fold their wings were quickly dispelled when their out-half James Arlidge landed two early penalties which, it has to be said, were conceded much too softly.

Leinster had plenty of possession, but with Sexton struggling to direct the traffic behind the scrum and with the visitors launching themselves into the tackles, the 15,000 crowd was soon silenced when second row, Hoani Macdonald, intercepted a pass by Sexton and strolled 45 metres unopposed to the line.

In mitigation, Sexton appeared to be slightly groggy after taking a bang – Fergus McFadden had found the range with a penalty the out-half would normally have kicked – however, the try did absolutely no harm to the Dragons' self-belief. Arlidge tapped over the extras and after 23 minutes Leinster were trailing 13-3.

If the spectators found it difficult to warm their hands as the temperature dropped even further, there were no excuses for too many spilled passes by the home team as they strove to close the gap.

The impressively direct openside, Sean O'Brien, in tandem with Brian O'Driscoll's latest midfield partner, McFadden, had done a lot to get Leinster going forward again, and appropriately it was O'Brien who rounded off a passing movement for the first try which Sexton converted.

If Shane Horgan had shown plenty of appetite, and if there was the occasional surge from Cian Healy and Stan Wright, Cheika would certainly not have been best pleased with the 13-10 interval scoreline.

And in truth, there wasn't much improvement after the changeover. Leinster continued to have field position, but disappointingly they continued to make too many mistakes while also incurring the wrath of referee Andy Macpherson.

Not even a Sexton penalty which levelled matters could lift the general unease, and it wasn't until midway through the half that the blue jerseys finally realised that route one against an opposition which was refusing to contest the rucks was the best route.

With his forwards at last tracking him effectively, Chris Whitaker started to snipe around the fringes and one long series of drives which involved Stephen Keogh, Rocky Elsom, Wright and O'Brien ended in Bernard Jackman ploughing his way over.

But still Leinster were finding it desperately hard to make the game safe, and the usually accurate Arlidge had an easy enough chance to close the gap, but this time his kick was pushed to the right.

Perhaps more in frustration than anything else, Cheika emptied his bench and Holwell and McFadden added penalties before Elsom finished the job with the final play.

LEINSTER G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, F McFadden, S Keogh; J Sexton, C Whitaker (capt); C Healy, B Jackman, S Wright, D Toner, M O'Kelly, R Elsom, S O'Brien, S Keogh Subs C Jowitt for Keogh, 65 mins; C Keane for Whitaker, D Holwell for Sexton, both 68 mins; T Hogan for Toner, 70 mins; G Brown for O'Driscoll, 72 mins

DRAGONS P Dollman; G Wyatt, R Sidey, M Stcherbina, R Fussell; J Arlidge, W Evans; A Black, T Willis (capt), G Robinson, H Macdonald, A Hall, J Bearman, L Evans, G Webb Subs D Lydiate for Hall, 27 mins; S Conner for Arlidge, 65 mins

Sin bin Macdonald 32-42 mins

Referee A Macpherson (Scotland)