ANDY’S SAFE SEX

out-half (right) come off in the 53rd minute with what appeared to be hamstring trouble.

Ireland are in action against Wales on February 7, so Sexton only has two weeks to rehab any issue.

“It was precautionary,” said Leinster head coach Leo Cullen. “He’ll be in Irish camp next week so he’ll be assessed.”

Cullen was pleased to leave Limerick with a late winning try from Jordan Larmour, given it prevented a second loss in three games. Instead, Leinster have won 27 of their last 28 games in the PRO14.

“We were very, very slow at the start, from our end there were lots of parts of our performance that weren’t great now.

“I don’t know if it was the snow we saw when we arrived, but when we kicked off it had stopped!

“We were 10-0 down with a mountain to climb but even though there were parts of it we didn’t deal with very well, either side of half-time we had a lot of pressure when we got turned over at the breakdown when we had pick and go opportunities near their tryline. “At this level we have to be better. “We need to be better, there’s a bit of a split now in camp, a lot of lads will go to Ireland camp and we’ll turn our attention to the Scarlets in Wales next week.”

Tadhg Beirne deservedly took the man of the match award although he finished on the losing side but his overriding emotion was disappointment.

“Big time,” Beirne said. “We just left a lot out there, we felt we had most of the possession for the majority of the game and defended them quite well, we had a few knock-ons at the end there, they’re big moments and we have to win them.

“We really feel like we should have won that today and obviously we’re bitterly disappointed.

“I think we matched them physically and would have won that game if we did things a little bit better.”