LEINSTER NEED TO focus on winning the physical battle when they go toe-to-toe with Bath again on Saturday evening.

Leo Cullen’s side ground out a 17-10 win at the Rec last weekend that leaves them in second place at the half-way stage in Heineken Champions Cup Pool 2.

But it was Bath who won the battle at the breakdown with Sam Underhill and Francois Louw proving particularly disruptive, forcing an uncharacteristically high seven turnovers.

Defeat in the Aviva Stadium this weekend would be a hammer blow to Leinster’s hopes of defending their European crown.

And former Ireland head coach Eddie O’Sullivan believes that physical dominance will be top of the list of work-ons this week.

“Leinster’s problems in the back row were predicated on the fact that physically they did not win the battle against Bath,” O’Sullivan said on Thursday’s episode of Heineken Rugby Weekly.

“We’re used to Leinster choking teams out. They choked out probably the toughest team that you can choke out, the Exeter Chiefs, last year in two matches.

“I thought they were on the back foot on Saturday against a very physical Bath team who haven’t been playing well all season, have been up and down and in and out. Bath lifted their game.

“Bath Rugby isn’t in that happy a place. You don’t need another extra pressure so they came out firing. The back row they had on the field suited that, the conditions suited it, but they were actually more physical.

“Bath had Leinster in trouble when they played route one rugby. It’s when they tried to get smart and go around the corners, they had a lot of handling errors and mistakes that really undid them.”