Leo Cullen trusts Leinster model will benefit from bitter experience

GLOOM: Leinster head coach Leo Cullen and Leinster players, from left, Michael Ala'alatoa, Jamison Gibson-Park and Cian Healy with their children after their side's defeat in the Heineken Champions Cup final match. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Leo Cullen has urged his deflated players to keep believing in themselves and the production line of talent coming out of the province to get across the winning line in Europe’s premier club competition.

The emotions in the Leinster dressing room were not difficult to imagine after a second consecutive narrow Heineken Champions Cup final defeat. Full-back Hugo Keenan described a disconsolate group of players whose dream opportunity for a victory on home soil at Aviva Stadium had looked in really good shape at 17-0 up after just 11 minutes but ended in a heartbreaking 27-26 defeat to La Rochelle on Saturday night.