Leinster can start to dream

So much for the Anglo-French carve-up. Four years on from the distasteful rupture that did for the Heineken Cup, and only two since the PRO12 failed to earn a single invitation for the quarter-finals, and here we are with three Celtic sides jostling with Racing 92 for a ticket to Bilbao in May.

No English offerings. And that on the back of a chastening Six Nations.

Leinster won’t really care about all that. This was about them. About this generation of players coming of age in the blue jersey and the knowledge that they now have what it takes to sew a fourth star above that harp in the not-too-distant future.