O'Connor pleased with Leinster response

The Irish region headed into the game with three losses to their name already - a 34-23 defeat to Munster at the Aviva Stadium the latest disappointment for the reigning PRO12 champions.

But they returned to winning ways thanks largely to the brilliance of Ian Madigan, who scored 13 points in the 20-3 win in what was his first start at fly-half this season.

And while thankful for Madigan's individual contribution, O'Connor insists the response of his entire squad bodes well as they turn their attention to European rugby.

"He is an unbelievably talented footballer and he will beat defenders for fun. They were starting to get tired and it was a timely result for us," O'Connor told the Irish Independent.

"I think they were struggling to hold on and we started to break them down a little bit at the back end of the first half but just didn't get the result on the scoreboard.

"We certainly had enough opportunities down there and if we were good enough we probably would have got another couple of tries and that would have been a fitting result for us off the back of a tough week.

"We let ourselves down with a couple of results that were pretty tight games to be fair. I think it could have gone either way, it was a good wake-up call for us last week.

"To build into Europe off the back of this win after the Munster defeat will hopefully be good for us."

Click here to see the best images from Leinster's win over Zebre

Follow us on Facebook, join the conversation on Twitter, sign up to our YouTube channel for extensive match highlights and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on the GUINNESS PRO12