Ronan O'Gara: They’ll talk out of the sides of their mouth about Leinster now

Insofar as we can employ a comparison, this was Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final last autumn against the All Blacks. The only thing that mattered was getting over the line.

DESPAIR: Leinster and Ryan Baird remain within touching distance of the Champions Cup trophy. Pic: Dan Sheridan, Inpho

HAUNTED was the word that came to mind when the camera panned to Leo Cullen, and it’s as good a word as I can find to describe that look. That comes from the pit of your stomach, the emptiness of defeat at the end of a long, hard road. All the crueller for extra time, for the metre or so between Ciarán Frawley’s drop goal attempt, and most of all for the fact that after three wearying European campaigns that went all the way to the last knockings, Leinster still come up empty-handed. Only a dead person wouldn’t empathise and anyone who has operated at the elite levels of sport could only sympathise.

Though not for long.