The highlights package will focus on the Shaun Berne miss-pass that came within a millimetre of being intercepted, on the sublime back-handed flick by Shane Horgan and of course on Brian O'Driscoll doing what has become a party-trick for him - producing the killer play in the final seconds. Like champions, Leinster delivered when they needed to - though no one who sat through the preceding 79 minutes and 50 seconds will forget quickly how sweaty it was for them.
It all added up to a great escape, for if Leinster had failed to secure a bonus point here, it would have felt almost like a defeat. But that's the problem with games where the bonus point is written into the equation. The pressure to score tries - rather than just win - can have a stifling effect. That's especially the case if you haven't played a game for all of three weeks and also if your opponents are up for the scrap. In fairness to Leinster coach Michael Cheika, he warned us that Brive were an outfit with a transformed attitude compared to the ramshackle crew that rolled over at the Amedee Domenech back in October.
Even though they had made 11 changes from the team that won in Albi last week - and even though the side contained just four Frenchmen - they turned up. Determined to extract something from a pool campaign in which they have yet to register a point, they kept Leinster defending for long periods during a second half during which they were supposed to be romping away with it. This was never a romp.
Ideally, the plan was to extinguish Brive's interest with a sharp, punitive opening assault - but that wasn't allowing for rust formed during the past few weeks. For much of the first half, Leinster played like a team learning an alien game; if they weren't tripping over each other, they were passing and kicking to opponents.
Jonathan Sexton, playing his first game in seven weeks, wasn't the worst offender - in fact, he continually looked threatening with ball in hand, receiving the ball flat and running hard. The flaws were more systemic. Only Leinster's set piece was functioning like normal but if Nathan Hines nicked a Brive throw, his teammates would fail to secure the ball. All very frustrating.
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But then Leinster's malaise had a lot to do with Brive's physicality and general spikiness, epitomised by skipper Antonie Claassen and Steve Thompson. Indeed the better chances in the first quarter fell to the visitors, who could have done with fly-half Luciano Orquera landing a penalty early on.
Mostly, though, Brive concentrated on making life difficult. By packing the back-field, they effectively forced Sexton to run and after numerous false starts, his three-quarters began to achieve a modicum of fluency. A move which freed Gordon D'Arcy down the left gave them the platform for the only score of the half.
In keeping with the generally scrappy nature of proceedings, this was a penalty try, ostensibly against Brive's Argentine loose-head Pablo Henn, for standing up in the scrum - his team's second consecutive scrum offence. After 24 minutes of heavy going, seven points came as a huge relief for an almost full RDS.
This wasn't the signal for Brive to let up, though. Their scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Pejoine made things difficult for them by kicking dead and conceding a scrum on their 22 near the end of the half but though Leinster pounded away in the 22 for a good 10 minutes leading up to the break, they came away with zilch.
Leinster couldn't afford to take so long to get going again, and they were nourished by a Sexton penalty, even if it required confirmation from the television match offical that the ball had indeed flown between the uprights.
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If they had been guilty of impatience in the first half, at least their second try, scored by Isa Nacewa, was all about composure. Having forced Claassen to spill a high ball under pressure by D'Arcy, the decisions made by Brian O'Driscoll, Rob Kearney - who made the key incision running left - Kevin McLaughlin and, finally Nacewa, were all spot-on. Sexton missed the conversion but a 15-0 lead gave them the platform to push on for the bonus.
Or so we thought. Brive emptied their bench and kept on churning away in search of some reward and got it when lock Retief Uys wriggled through a maul to score. We were now entering the final quarter and things were getting a bit sweaty for Leinster.
They were given some momentum by Sean O'Brien, on as a replacement for Shane Jennnings, who was understandably a touch off the pace after 13 weeks out of the game. Then D'Arcy relieved the tension when he crashed through Lachlan Mackay's tackle in the 67th minute but it was only temporary. Scott Spedding scored Brive's second three minutes from time - before O'Driscoll's coup de grace.
Star man: Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster)
Scorers: Leinster: Tries: Penalty 26, Nacewa 45, D'Arcy 67, O'Driscoll 80 Cons: Sexton (2) Pen: Sexton
Brive: Tries: Uys 60, Spedding 76
Referee: A Small (RFU)
Attendance: 17,836
Leinster: R Kearney; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy (S Berne, 75), I Nacewa; J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, J Fogarty, S Wright (CJ van der Linde, 55), L Cullen (capt), N Hines, K McLaughlin, S Jennings (S O'Brien, 47), J Heaslip.
Brive: S Spedding; N Jeanjean, J Noon, L Mackay, H Agulla (V Waqaseduadua, 66); L Orquera (R Bianco, 57), J Pejoine (S Perry h-t); P Henn (P Barnard, h-t), S Thompson (G Ribes, 61), P Idieder (P Toderasc, h-t), R Uys, D Browne (C Short, 61), A Popham, F Domingo S Azoulai, 61), A Claassen (capt).