Leo Cullen’s men had enough to hold off the Scots when down to 13 players, and in fact the hosts took the lead following Michael Bent’s return to play – with the tighthead scoring only his second ever try for the province.

Scores had been hard to come by before that, with Ross Byrne thwarted twice from the tee in the early stages, the swirling winds making it a tough night for the kickers, while the hosts appeared to have bagged an early try only for the TMO to spot an obstruction in the build up.

Eventually the opening score arrived, on the 17th minute, with full back Hugo Keenan sweeping a key pass out wide. Dave Kearney, the only change in the backline from last week, gathered on the wing and his one handed offload found its way – via Lowe’s head – to Gibson-Park, who touched down in the corner.

Scoring opportunities were at a premium as the half progressed, but Edinburgh’s dominance at the set piece was finally rewarded when they scored just after the half hour. Bent was yellow carded after the Leinster scrum struggled under pressure and after a third reset, Nic Groom’s reverse pass to Damien Hoyland cut the hosts apart, giving Jamie Farndale an easy run home.

Joe Tomane followed Bent to the bin after sliding knees first into Farndale – leaving Leinster down to 13 men. Yet, it was the hosts who stood up despite the numeric disadvantage and Bent pushed home after a lineout maul to draw cheers from team mates and the RDS crowd as the clock ticked into a 46th first half minute.

Just two minutes after the restart Caelan Doris helped Leinster to a third try of the night, and it took just five minutes more before Scott Penny, Doris’ backrow colleague, bagged the bonus point fourth.

The game had been turned on its head, now Leinster had the wind at their back, and the home support weren’t asked to wait too long for a fifth try, with replacement prop Michael Milne bundling home to score his second try in as many weeks.

Another rookie made his mark two minues later – with Rowan Osborne scoring a try with his first involvement in the game. Jimmy O’Brien’s sparkling break from deep in the Leinster half cut Edinburgh apart, but it was Lowe’s offload that had the crowd on their feet, and gave the scrum half an easy touch down.

Harry Byrne’s conversion put Leinster 40-7 ahead but Charlie Shiel had the last word with Edinburgh’s second try of the night, a score that was purely academic.

LEINSTER:

Hugo Keenan, Dave Kearney, Rory O’Loughlin (Jimmy O’Brien 63¢), Joe Tomane, James Lowe, Ross Byrne (Harry Byrne 63¢), Jamison Gibson-Park (Rowan Osborne 65¢); Peter Dooley (Michael Milne 55¢), Rónan Kelleher (James Tracy 55¢), Michael Bent (Vakh Abdaladze 55¢), Devin Toner, Scott Fardy (c)(Ross Molony 67¢), Max Deegan, Scott Penny, Caelan Doris (Josh Murphy 45¢).

EDINBURGH:

15. Damien Hoyland, Jamie Farndale, Mark Bennett, George Taylor (James Johnstone 53¢), Duhan van der Merwe (Simon Hickey 53¢), Jaco van der Walt, Nic Groom (captain)(Charlie Shiel 59¢); Pierre Schoeman (Jamie Bhatti 62¢), Mike Willemse (Cameron Fenton 62¢), Pietro Ceccarelli (Murray McCallum 62¢), Jamie Hodgson, Murray Douglas, Mesulame Kunavula (Ally Miller 49¢), Luke Crosbie, Nick Haining.