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Unlike this stage last season when the 2009 champions were beaten on their own patch by London Irish, Leinster made the most of the opportunities they created and sniffed out any chance of a visiting victory as soon as Racing got their hopes up.
"I thought we converted a couple of really good chances to keep that gap between us and them," said Schmidt after Leinster opened up a 21-6 half-time lead with two quick-fire tries before pulling away once more when Racing threatened to hit back having scored a try of their own.
"We watched their game against Toulouse last week when they came back from almost 20 points down so we were conscious that we couldn't let them get back into the game.
"They got close to doing that so it was nice to see us keep our composure and pull away again."
Racing certainly played their part in an entertaining fixture at the RDS but, to borrow a tennis analogy, it was Leinster who won all the big points.
It was Schmidt's men who took their chances and it was the same side that rose to the occasion in defence and attack, with Heaslip leading the way in both departments.
"Like Joe said, we showed a lot of ticker at crucial moments to bounce back and get scores at important times," added the skipper, who was part of an impressive back row unit alongside openside Shane Jennings and Heineken Man of the Match Sean O'Brien.
"We showed a lot of patience as well when we had the ball. That's when we caused them a lot of problems, when we played them through a lot of phases.
"That's what we had to do: not cough up the ball stupidly and easily but to keep going at them and play a bit of territory as well.
"I think we've played a lot of games this season where we've played well but we didn't take our opportunities. Today we took a lot of our opportunities. We were very clinical and efficient."
