Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has confirmed that Johnny Sexton will be assessed as quickly as possible after the Ireland captain was withdrawn with a facial injury in the 64th minute of their 41-12 win over Connacht at the RDS last night.

Making his first start for the province in more than two months – he recently appeared off the bench in a routine Heineken Champions Cup victory against Gloucester at the same venue – Sexton played his part as Leinster extended their cushion at the United Rugby Championship summit to eight points with a 11th consecutive triumph.

However, a collision with Connacht back-row Jarrad Butler saw Sexton being withdrawn with a cheekbone issue inside the final quarter – a worrying sign for Cullen and international head coach Andy Farrell with some big games coming up for both coaches.

“Obviously he has taken a fair old whack on his cheek. We’ll see how he is. We’ll get it assessed pretty quickly, we should know by tomorrow the extent of it,” Cullen remarked in his post-match press conference.

While Sexton had to go off, television replays suggested he may have been fortunate to escape some form of caution for his challenge on Butler. Given flashpoints of this nature can often be interpreted in different ways by match officials, Cullen has called for greater clarity from World Rugby in how to deal with these incidents in the near future.

“There’s a bit of muddiness, isn’t there, at the moment in the game. Probably just needs something clear coming down from World Rugby on some of these contacts. They’re not all the same now, so it’s hard to be definitive.

“It’s almost getting to the point now with a ball carrier, you can almost see a tackler that’s high and it’s almost like you can head straight for them. All of the onus is on the defending player. They’re tricky ones. It needs probably a clearer message than we’re probably getting at the moment, I think.”

As for the game itself – which saw Leinster score three late tries through Rob Russell, Ryan Baird and Josh van der Flier to give the final scoreline a more comprehensive look – Cullen was satisfied overall with his team’s performance, even though it was patchy at times.

“In the dressing room there we’ve a little bit of frustration because particularly at half-time we were very frustrated. We misfired a good few line-outs, which means we don’t really build any sustained pressure on Connacht,” Cullen added.

“It took us a long while to break them down properly. We just played in fits and starts really. Probably the best bit is the last period of the game, but we had sort of built a bit of a lead by that point.”

Despite some encouraging signs throughout the course of the game – including opening period tries from ex-Leinster player David Hawkshaw and Tom Farrell – Connacht find themselves 13th in the table as a result of their latest interprovincial defeat.

This also leaves them eight points adrift of the play-off spots and with the margin for error becoming smaller with each passing game, Friend admitted next Saturday’s home encounter against fifth-place Cell C Sharks is a must-win affair.

“It is season-defining, we have to win that. No doubt about that. That’s pretty much our URC season. We’ve got to get a win there. We’ve put ourselves in a position now where pretty much every game from here, we’ve got to be picking up points. Ideally four or five points,” Friend said.