Bah Humbug! Despite churning out another win, albeit the least sparkling of their recent hat-trick, Leinster still resembled a troupe of Scroogealikes following this success against Ulster, livid at a farcical turnover rate nearing the half-century mark.

'Tis the season to fear folly and all that.

Tries from Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip speckled a game marked by lengthy longueurs and the shrill trill of referee George Clancy, proving just enough to see off an unavoidably weakened Ulster side in a contest which sadly demeaned a once-proud interprovincial fixture.

Leinster clearly struggled to scale the heights of their Heineken Cup back-to-back five-pointers against the Scarlets -- remember, they had scolded themselves for drifting in both those games too.

However, it is clearly impossible -- physically, in the modern game, if nothing else -- to maintain the same levels on a weekly basis. Hence squad rotation, or 'active rest.' Hence a team, who are the champions of Europe, being cocksure enough of their own ability that they can play at 70 per cent and still pick up the points.

Of course, doing 'just enough' to win doesn't wash in this ultra-competitive dressing-room. Privately, though, you suggest there'll be the briefest of knowing smiles.

"We didn't play well the whole game," according to Michael Cheika. "We were physical enough alright. We just didn't get any shape about our attack. We were indisciplined in our defence, we gave away penalties when we didn't need to.

"We could have just sat there and defended the line and worked hard at our defence. I thought our physicality was there, it was just the workrate wasn't there to create the conditions for the game that we wanted to play.

"We know there's a broken schedule over this period and you don't get the training days you want. But still, you go into our dressing-room afterwards and it was like we lost. That's not the standard we want to have and we know that."

The IRFU's policy of necessity concerning player welfare ahead of the next World Cup, implemented centrally but applied locally, ensured that Ulster were shorn their leading stars -- Stephen Ferris, Paddy Wallace and Tom Court.

Hence the contest lacked any zest, the festive crowd struggled to engage at times and the brute force normally felt on occasions such as these was sadly lacking. Cheika refused to deploy Ulster's team-sheet as an alibi to defend his team's lethargy.

"Names mean nothing. It's the team you play every time. It was a little disappointing because one of the things we've always had in these derbies is they've been full-strength affairs.

"I suppose that's a bit of a side-effect of the resting policy that this wasn't a full fixture. They didn't have all their players. Maybe we were lucky because if they did have all their players, we wouldn't have won."

Cheika will have to rest his stars in Connacht next week and at home to Glasgow a week later. Commercial reality may dictate the majority will sit out the former, it being an away fixture. Hence, another inter-provincial tradition is flushed down the swanee.

Cheika would surely accept another fortnight where the win supersedes performance. "It's part of it, yeah," he said

when asked about "winning when not playing well," a custom as old as the Wren boys.

"I won't lie, we can't always be at full pelt. But I wouldn't have minded if we'd won 15-3 and been more accurate to a higher percentage. We gave away far too much ball, over 40 times.

"It's just not plausible. We're lucky they weren't on their game because we gave them opportunity after opportunity to come back into our territory. One thing that was clear is that the players understood it. I didn't have to say anything, they were talking about it themselves. They know if they perform like that next week, they'll be beaten."

The Ulster camp were similarly downbeat. Arguably the more inventive of the two at times, running some sublime angles and attacking as flat as possible, a lack of cutting edge in the red zone betrayed some fine build-up play.

"We got a performance and our attitude was outstanding," declared Brian McLaughlin. "We fought very hard and our defence was excellent. We suffered in the first half, not playing in the correct areas when we had possession. Then they got into our 22 twice and scored twice."

Rob Kearney's try arrived just before the break, a move sparked from off-the-top ball from Kevin McLaughlin's take, finished when Gordon D'Arcy defied the two defenders crawling on his back to brilliantly conceal a flick inside to the full-back who raced home.

audacious

After the break, Jamie Heaslip rounded off a fine display -- albeit we would like to see less of the earlier childish, English-style cynical patting on an opponent's head -- when taking Kearney's audacious one-handed pass to sprint home, en route imperiously handling off young Jamie Smith.

Cheika's decision to rotate for the last quarter, including a distinctly disinterested Brian O'Driscoll, hinted at the lack of vigour in the contest, as he reckoned "nobody looked like scoring for the last 20 minutes."

"It is a shame because the interprovincial fixtures are special ones and it would be nice if everyone was playing in them."

After putting their feet up for the holiday, Leinster's rabid support were probably seeking more in the way of entertainment and some younger folk were perhaps longingly eyeing the Ferris Wheel next door. How they could have done with the real Ferris.

Cheika didn't know whether the punters should feel short-changed. "I wouldn't know what they're thinking but they're always happy if we win." Young McLaughlin knew where the fault lay.

"Obviously we had too good a Christmas," he confessed. "We took our foot off the pedal a little bit, and we're going to work on getting things right and playing our type of game again next week against Connacht."

For which Jonathan Sexton may be available. Poor Stan Wright may not, though.

A victim of a vomiting bug, he was the glummest Leinster player by far this Christmas. "He couldn't eat a thing on Christmas Day which he wasn't happy about," smiled Cheika. That the rest of his squad remains ravenous for improvement will make him smile even more.

Leinster -- Kearney; Horgan, O'Driscoll (McFadden 65), D'Arcy, Nacewa; Berne, Reddan; Healy, Fogarty (Jackman 51), Wright (Ross), Cullen, O'Kelly (Toner 78), McLaughlin, O'Brien, Heaslip.

Ulster --Smith; Nagusa, Cave (Shiels 26), Whitten, Danielli; O'Connor (Humphreys ht), Boss; Young, Brady (Kyriacou 70), Botha (D Fitzpatrick 56), O'Donoghue, Tuohy, Anderson, Faloon, Henry (Caldwell 66). YC: TP Anderson (22-32)

Ref -- G Clancy (IRFU)

Irish Independent