Pragmatic Schmidt looks to future

Joe Schmidt stood next to the start line on Exeter’s indoor sprint track under Sandy Park’s main stand on Saturday night all but certain that it marked the end of the road for Leinster’s Heineken Cup campaign.

His gut told him as much.

His head estimated they had a 20% chance of scraping through but three years spent in France told him a second-string Racing Metro side with nothing to play for was unlikely to do them a favour in Limerick.