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Leinster now in survival mode

They slumped to a 16-19 defeat at Bath at the weekend, their second successive loss.

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The defeat, which followed last week's 6-33 loss to Wasps in their Pool Five opener, left the Irishmen facing back-to-back games with defending three-time champions Toulon to keep their hopes alive.

"It's going to be tough," Leinster coach Leo Cullen said.

"We just need to park Europe for the next couple of weeks, and try to get a bit more confidence in the Celtic League."

"We need to get some consistency back in our game before we get into the back-to-back games against Toulon next month.

"Stade Felix-Mayol is a difficult place to have to go, but it is also an exciting prospect going there.

"There was a lot of effort out there, but we weren't clinical enough in our execution. We gave away a lot of penalties and points at the scrum and that's probably what gave them the game.Leinster now in survival mode

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"We have four international props, but it was a bad day at the office for them although Bath have one of the best scrums in Europe

"It would have been easy for us to have folded after that penalty try, but we came back into it when Josh scored and I thought we looked the stronger team in the last 10 minutes.

"Credit to Bath, they ran back our penalty miss and came back into it.

"We will dust ourselves off and get back into the Pro12.

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"We have Ulster coming to Dublin on Friday and they will be looking for a win after what happened to them against Saracens."

Flyhalf star George Ford kicked the match-winning penalty for Bath from 40 metres with three minutes left at the Recreation Ground.

It was his fourth successive kick of the game and came just moments after Johnny Sexton had missed a difficult 55-metre penalty for Leinster which fell just short with the match level at 16-16.

Bath, whose opening game in the tournament in Toulon was called off last week in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks, and their Irish visitors were level at 9-9 deep into the second half.

But Bath edged ahead on the hour through a penalty try awarded by French referee Jerome Garces as Leinster's scrum continued to buckle.

Ford popped over the extras before replacement Josh Van Der Flier went over for Leinster just two minutes after coming onto the pitch.

Ford had the last word with his 14-point haul to condemn Leinster to their first back-to-back opening losses in Europe in two decades.

"We showed our inexperience at 16-9 up," said Bath coach Mike Ford, the father of George.

"We were in control of the game, but we stupidly did things that let them back in.

"I am pleased we won against a Leinster side full of internationals. Our scrum was awesome – Henry Thomas and Nick Auterac were outstanding – but we can't afford to give teams easy outs and chances to score points like we did in this match."

Leinster now in survival mode

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