Bizarrre stuff. Connacht tear out of the blocks like men on a mission; then Leinster catch up in record time and slap them about the place. So the prospect of Andy Friend’s side adding Leinster to their last-gasp win over Ulster in this Rainbow Cup was demolished. In fairness to his side they had built it up, with a 16-0 lead after 13 minutes. Then it got shredded.

This is not the first time this season Connacht have looked so comfortable and confident in the driving seat only to end up in the ditch with all four wheels spinning. One minute they were in control – 16 minutes later they had conceded four tries to trail 16-26?

“Yeah, he’s been excellent this season,” Leo Cullen said. “He’s been sort of a mainstay of the Irish team really after only making his debut in the autumn. For a lot of our players who are in that situation where they’ve played a lot of international rugby over the course of this season and missed out on (Lions) selection, they just need to keep playing well.

“But what can the players control at the moment? Make sure they’re playing well. So we’ve another game, against Ulster, and hopefully lots of guys can put their hands up. It would be amazing to think all 37 players who were selected during the week will be the 37 getting on the plane. There are so many games to be played between now and take-off.”

Connacht’s concerns are more domestic than international. Having got the first bit right they were then blown away, conceding eight tries, a fistful of them directly or indirectly tied to the maul.

“We knew we had a Leinster team wounded we had to start quickly, which we did, but then we gave them access to our A zone,” Andy Friend said. “They scored tries way too easily, something we need to work on. It’s an area we’re trying to get right all year – but we have to compliment Leinster for what they did. As soon as they got in the A zone, they were very clinical.

“Munster will have a game-plan for us next week but watching that tonight, they’ll try and get penalties, get into our A zone and launch their maul. If they’re not able to do that, they’ll attack breakdown. That was where we were hurt. I wouldn’t say they (Leinster) are miles ahead of us – we won one, they won one against us, the scoreline does not look good, but it’s not as bad as the scoreline suggests.

“Our away form is better than what we have delivered at home – earlier this season we got close against Munster twice. We’re looking forward to going to Thomond next week.”

For Leinster, it’s more a question of staying awake to face what Ulster will throw at them. “Yeah we got shocked into it – eventually,” Cullen said. “Thankfully. We were just a bit chaotic probably in the first 10 to 12 minutes, whatever it was, to go 16-0 down. We probably lacked a bit of discipline in some of our actions. But I thought the guys showed good composure and the forwards exerted a bit of dominance particularly around the lineout drive, painting much better pictures and scoring some good tries off the back of that. It’s been a pretty challenging week for lots of different reasons, as we know, so a good response from the guys.”

Connacht – J Porch (S Arnold 53); P Sullivan, S O’Brien, T Daly, M Healy (O McNulty 30); C Fitzgerald, C Blade (K Marmion 65); D Buckley (M Burke 57), D Heffernan (J Murphy 65), F Bealham (D Robertson-McCoy 57); N Murray, G Thornbury, C Oliver, E Masterson, J Butler (A Papali’i 30).

Leinster – H Keenan; C Kelleher, G Ringrose, C Frawley (R O’Loughlin 37), D Kearney; R Byrne (J Larmour 56), L McGrath (capt) (R Osborne 62); P Dooley (E Byrne 55), J Tracy (D Sheehan 55), A Porter (T Furlong 55); R Molony, S Fardy; J Murphy (R Baird 64), S Penny, J Conan (HIA; J Van der Flier 25).

Ref – F Murphy (IRFU).