Reigning Heineken Cup champions Leinster Rugby fired a warning to their rivals in the last four this season as they followed up their comfortable quarter-final victory over Cardiff Blues with an even more emphatic thrashing of fellow semi-finalists Edinburgh Rugby.
Even though head coach Joe Schmidt rested 12 players from the side that had beaten the Blues 34-3 at the Aviva Stadium the previous weekend they were able to run in eight tries in a 54-13 triumph at RDS to stretch their lead at the top of the RaboDirect PRO12 to 15 points.
Only Jamie Heaslip, Gordon D'Arcy and Isa Nacewa retained their places from the Heineken Cup quarter-final, while Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley started with 10 of the side that had beaten Toulouse at Murrayfield and brought a further three of his top team off the bench during the course of a miserable night in Dublin.
Edinburgh have to return to the Irish capital on Saturday, 28 April to face Ulster Rugby in the first of this season's Heineken Cup semi-finals at the Aviva Stadium. Leinster travel to Stade Chaban Delmas, in Bordeaux, to face ASM Clermont Auvergne the next day.
Eight different players crossed for tries for Leinster and had the home side's goalkicking been better they could have won by a great deal more.
"It's fantastic to run up such a score and it does gives us a buffer at the top of the table. We scored some super tries and it's fantastic for the players that were out there," Leinster head coach Joe Schmidt told the Leinster website.
"The crowd were great too, and I think they really enjoyed it. That performance will mean some Panadols for the coaches because some guys put in really big performances out there, and it's going to be tough to make some decisions for Ulster next week and obviously Clermont the week after that."
Having confined Toulouse to one breakaway try when they were reduced to 13 men a week earlier, this was a huge reality check for Edinburgh as they build towards the biggest game in their history against Ulster.
They travel to Cardiff to face the Blues next Sunday in their final outings before the Heineken Cup semi-finals. Leinster, meanwhile, will check out the credentials of another Heineken Cup semi-final team when they travel to Ravenhill to meet Ulster on Friday night.
"We had a reasonable start to the match but ultimately didn't turn up on the day, which was very disappointing. We came here with a strong side and simply should have been better," admitted Bradley.
"Leinster were clinical and used their power to dominate the breakdown and we couldn't stop their momentum. It wasn't good enough."
On a more positive note, Bradley announced earlier in the week the signing of two Welsh internationals to strengthen his squad next season, scrum half Richie Rees and prop John Yapp. They are both joining from Cardiff Blues and they will join Georgian World Cup star Dimitri Basilaia from Valence d'Agen.
