For all of the painstaking detail that goes into curating a gameplan, sometimes you just can't beat good instincts.
Rugby has never been more about the details, and Leinster have been among the market leaders when it comes to that in recent seasons, but their 20-17 Investec Champions Cup semi-final win over the Northampton Saints was achieved via the gut. In the crunch moments, smart players did smart things when they didn't have much time to think.
That's not to say it was a vintage Leinster performance. It wasn't. Almost letting a 20-3 lead slip in a home semi-final would have been a crushing blow for a side which most expected to cruise through to the final, and the looks of relief on their faces after seeing out those final nervous moments said it all.
The deciding passages of play were instinctive. Jamison Gibson-Park's quick-tap penalty and pass to James Lowe provided the opening score of the game, when there were a safe three points on offer. Five minutes later he threw a slap at a loose ball which landed in the lap of his winger to score again.
Lowe's third try came after a wonderful passage of unstructured play in which Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan and Jamie Osborne all threw offloads to keep the move alive, while in the middle of it all Ryan Baird turned a bad pass into a 30 metre gain by foraging for space infield (below).
Those instinctive plays are all well and good when the game is going your way, but when the result was in the balance, it was that savvy inclination that proved decisive.
With 90 seconds left to play, Leinster were on the ropes. Leading by three, the Saints had broken upfield and were just under 30 metres out from the line when Temo Mayanavanua brought the ball into contact, only for Caelan Doris and Jack Conan to pounce on the lock and claim a jackal penalty.
In a three-point game, it was a ballsy turnover. A half-second too slow, or a fraction too aggressive, and it would be a penalty in front of the posts. With the way Fin Smith had been kicking, the Saints out-half could have tapped it over with his eyes closed and brought the game to extra time.
Play it as you feel it.
"It's more instinct, you don't really have time to weigh it up too much," Doris said after the game, when asked about whether or not the script and situation of the game comes into play in moments like that.
"It's learning as captain, trying to be a little bit more aware of the clock, what's going on on the scoreboard etc.
"Generally, with me it would be instincts."
The Leinster captain (above) was diplomatic about who actually got the credit for the penalty between he and Conan: "one hand each".
"The context of the game, it felt like we needed a moment like that but you don't want to go overly hunting for them.
"If it shows up, I was actually on the outside and that's against our 'D' system coming in like that, but I'd the security of Jack on the inside."
Gibson-Park's recollection of the mental process for his early highlights was less scientific.
"Thems the breaks sometimes," the scrum-half put it, referring to his quick-thinking, or maybe lack thereof, which put Lowe's second try on a plate.
The Ireland international was the standout player at Croke Park, with his two brilliant assists for Lowe giving Leinster an early 12-point buffer.
For his first assist, there was a bit more time to analyse the situation, but it still highlighted his cunning eye.
If you look in at the picture below, or watch the score back, Gibson-Park can be seen scanning to Lowe's wing as soon as he picks up the ball after the penalty is awarded. By the time he's back at the referee's mark, his mind is made up. It's all in the eyes.
"It's probably intuitive to a point," he added.
"A lot of players, not to talk myself up, but they've all played with me long enough now to know I'm going to be looking for those sort of opportunities.
"So, Lowey certainly is somebody who is on the same wavelength. It's not really a call, but you see it as well.
"A lot of it comes back to your training habits that we do week to week and day to day.
"I'm pretty lucky to be in a class environment where everyone is on the same page and we're pretty driven. The quality of training is pretty awesome, really, we have two quality teams going at it most of the time.
"It comes back to the day-to-day, I'm lucky to be in this environment."
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