Leo Cullen has played down fears of Johnny Sexton being forced to take an extended break from rugby, with the Leinster head coach suggesting the 31-year-old will be out of action for around three to four weeks.

Leinster’s South African star Zane Kirchner says Ruan Pienaar has been left “heartbroken” by the IRFU decision to block Ulster’s plans to re-sign the star.

Winger Tommy Seymour ran in four tries for Glasgow in a 33-25 victory over Leinster on Scotstoun's new artificial pitch.

Glasgow Warriors 12 Leinster 6: Connacht can sleep easily this weekend after Leinster failed to knock the Galway men off their top perch in the Guinness Pro12 last night at Scotstoun with defeat to Glasgow in a match that produced not a single try.

Change is the order of the day for Leinster head coach Leo Cullen, who has chosen a completely new starting line-up for his side’s latest Guinness Pro12 encounter against Scarlets at the RDS this evening.

Edinburgh 23 Leinster 36

Dragons 25 Leinster 22: Leinster’s reign as Guinness Pro12 champions appears all but over after Matt O’Connor’s side surrendered a 22-8 lead at Rodney Parade.

Leinster survived a late scare from Bath at the Aviva Stadium today to book a place in the Champions Cup semi-finals.

Leinster survived a late scare from Bath at the Aviva Stadium today to book a place in the Champions Cup semi-finals.

Scarlets 23, Leinster 13: Matt O’Connor is adamant this defeat in west Wales has not done major damage to Leinster’s Guinness Pro12 title aspirations.

Guiness Pro12

Leinster 24 Ulster 11

The international contingent get all the breaks. With Joe Schmidt hosting a pre-Christmas camp in Carton House early in the week, the onus fell on the supporting cast in the provinces with Gordon D’Arcy the only player who started in Ireland’s last outing against Australia asked to play in the festive derbies in Limerick and Belfast yesterday.

Leinster 21 Connacht 11

Leinster 21 Connacht 11

Leinster may have lost just once in their last eight outings, but the quality of their performances continue to drive the conversation as the province turns away from Europe and into a hat-trick of domestic interpros in the Guinness PRO12.

Harlequins 24 Leinster 18

Guinness Pro12: Treviso 24 Leinster 24

Leinster continue to mix the bad with the good, but they managed just enough of the latter to pull away from a game Wasps side last night and claim a first-up victory in their maiden Rugby Champions Cup outing.

Leinster came through a tough first examination in the Champions Cup as they edged out Wasps 25-20 at the RDS Arena.

Zebre 3 Leinster 20

Leinster 42 Scarlets 12

Leinster 42 Scarlets 12

Leinster 7 Ulster 10

Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor believes any replacement for Brian O’Driscoll will have to be a perfect fit, not just on the field but for the environment being generated at the province.

Four-try Leinster overcame the early departure of Brian O’Driscoll to beat Glasgow Warriors 34-12 and become the first team to retain the RaboDirect PRO12 title.

There was mayhem at Ravenhill last night as 14-man Ulster heroically booked a place in the last four of the RaboDirect League.

RABO DIRECT PRO12:

Ospreys 25 Leinster 19

Leo Cullen may well be Leinster’s forwards coach in waiting but no one was willing to confirm as much yesterday as rumours linking the club to Kiwi hooker Quentin MacDonald met with the same non-committal stone wall.

RABODIRECT PRO12:

RABODIRECTPRO12: