Cheika calls for killer instinct

London Irish top Pool 6 ahead of the champions courtesy of a better try return and Cheika is calling for his star-studded side to step up their try-scoring feats.

"Because we are in such a difficult group every point and every try is going to count," he said. "We were happy to get that fourth try at Parc y Scarlets but now we have to make sure we eliminate the negative parts we showed in the second half and build a better performance for Saturday.

"What we have to make sure is that we worry about ourselves, that we are more physical, aggressive and ruthless - we cannot rest on what we have done and say it will help us next week because it will not happen."

The Scarlets had gone into the match as Pool 6 leaders and one of just four sides able to boast two from two after the October openers but now they are down to third.

Nevertheless, they did give Cheika some worrying moments and he is demanding there is no repeat in Dublin.

"We can't let them have another purple patch like they did and that is a mental weakness we have to sort out before Saturday," he said.

"Our selection process made sure we were fresh and ready to go and we were for the first 40 - but after that we were pretty ordinary and that would have given them a bit of a look in for next week.

"And, when you play back-to-back games, you have to show no weakness so we have to get those things that hurt us in the second half right and in order before Saturday.

"It was always going to be a tough game - they were on top of the group and came out firing, were very physical and chased the ball well.

"We needed to up our intensity and we didn't do that in the second half. Again, that is something to work on before Round 4."

And 2009 Grand Slam winner Jamie Heaslip accepts that Leinster took their foot off the gas and allowed the Scarlets a chink of hope.

"It was job done, and a good result but perhaps we let ourselves down a bit in the second half as we didn't bring the same sort of pace to the game as we had in the first half," he said. "But we have to be happy with the bonus point away win and that puts us in a good position in table.

"Now we have a week's turnaround and then we will need another big performance to build on this because we probably missed out on couple of tries after we had kicked off the game well, got our first score early on and then piled on the pressure.

"Our defence stood tall and proud and they found it hard to break us down, and when we got turnover ball we were pretty ruthless, particularly when they made mistakes.

"And, although we wanted to carry on going hard, we failed to do that and they came back at us before we got our bonus point try late in the game."