What a difference a year makes

IT’S BEEN quite a week for the RDS, with a pair of soccer internationals and a Magners League final over a five-day period.

Unfortunately for the team that has made the Ballsbridge venue its impregnable fortress for some time now, Leinster were the only Irish team to experience the bitter pill of defeat.

For the first time in 16 consecutive home Magners League outings, Leinster faltered in a contest that, for a variety of reasons, they dearly wanted to win. On a night the most successful coach in their professional history prepared to sign off on a very productive five-year stint, and crowd favourites Malcolm O’Kelly and Girvan Dempsey bade farewell, it seemed nobody in the capacity audience had contemplated defeat.