Cullen’s men were ahead 18-11 at the break and 23-14 on the hour mark, but had to be content with a five-point lead going into Friday’s second leg.

He told the Irish Independent: “You always want more, it’s your natural greed, particularly when you’re 23-14 ahead and playing down the slope, you’re hoping you’ll kick on at that point.

“It doesn’t quite play out like that as we know, but our noses are just about in front. It’s better than being five points behind!

“Whatever the situation was, it was always going to be a tricky dynamic. The big thing is it’s a great contest and I think it’s a positive celebration of Irish provincial rugby when you see much it means to the two teams.

“That’s what you want to see. We’ve won our sequence of derby games in the last while, we beat Connacht away, Munster away and Connacht away, so now we’ve got a home game against an Irish province, albeit the Aviva will be our home.

“So for our guys it’s getting excited by playing in front of our home support on Friday and trying to put on a big performance in a knock-out game in Europe where we’re starting five points ahead.

“It’s great and I think it’s something that should be celebrated because you could see it there, a packed house in Galway and I’m sure if there was a bigger venue there, they would have been able to pack a lot more people in.”

Flanker Caelan Doris was named Heineken Star of the Match after an all-action display.

He told Leinster Rugby TV: “It's a tough place to come. We were here two weeks ago, but we knew it was going to be a different animal tonight.

“There were more spectators here and it was a pretty boisterous crowd.

“Connacht stuck at it for the full 80 minutes as we knew they would. It was a big occasion for both teams. We're looking forward to coming up against them again next week.”

Doris added: “Really the scoreboard starts at zero and next week is the knockout game.

“Some of our defensive stuff wasn’t probably where it needs to be. We know the quality of Connacht’s attack. They’re really at the line and they have multiple threats.”

Leinster Rugby head coach Leo Cullen was happy enough with his side’s 26-21 victory at Connacht Rugby in their Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 first leg clash.