Leinster progressed to a Champions Cup semi-final with the Scarlets after a 30-19 win over Saracens at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.
Speaking to Off the Ball's Dave McIntyre after the match, Leinster coach Leo Cullen said: "The guys did great today I thought - started the game well. I think that was important to start well because Saracens are bloody hard team to chase the game against so always having our noses in from was nice to be in that situation.
"It was a big moment just on halftime when we held them out and got that turnover from the line-out and started the second-half well and brought positive momentum into the second half."
Given that most of his team was away on 6 Nations duty with Ireland over the last two months - Cullen was happy with the physical and mental condition they returned in: "You always worry because the guys left in good shape coming off the Montpellier game into the 6 Nations and you're trying to watch the games and see as much as you possibly can of them and make some calls based on what you're seeing but they've come back in reasonably good shape and they were managed well and the communication has been good there - I think that's really important amongst all the levels of backroom staff as well.
"So we tried to take good care of the players. Some of the bench guys came back and played against the Ospreys which was good because they looked a bit shy on minutes, some of them whereas some of the starters - it was important we managed them in a slightly different manner so they came back in well and they looked fresh off the break which is pleasing to see because we were never 100% sure how they would rock into this game.
"But, they managed themselves well and I think it's a credit to the way they prepared."
Leinster will face PRO14 counterparts Scarlets in the next round at the Aviva and he is expecting another tough clash with the Welsh side.
"We've played them twice during the 6 Nations so we've known each other well during this block and yeah, two very tough games. There'll be some changes in personnel to both teams but it's a great challenge for us again
"Scarlets beat us with 14 men last year at home in the RDS and they hammered Munster here in the final so they don't have any fears coming to Dublin. They're very, very dangerous across the board and they've a lot of threats - they caused us problems last year and they caused us problems this year so it's going to be another great occasion."
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