On Rugby: The post-match meal for the teams after Sunday's quarter-final was located in a building about 200 yards from the Estadio Anoeta. As the Munster squad filed by in hangdog fashion, hundreds of the Red Army congregated outside a bar and stood and applauded them at length. Not just in victory, but in defeat, it was ever thus, be it the slow retreat from Twickenham, Lille, Cardiff, Toulouse or San Sebastian.

It perhaps helped the Red Army's mood that Munster's Heineken European Cup odyssey has taken them on a pretty varied and scenic route, and San Sebastian was another big hit all round for this competition, but the thing is if they do go down, Munster go down fighting. They give value for money.

Comparisons are inevitable if odious, and Leinster supporters and players alike must hate eulogies to their Munster counterparts, because it often comes at their expense. So it was again last weekend, and the palpable impression is that the core Leinster supporters, who've travelled to Biarritz and the Rec in numbers and noisily, feel the same. Nor can the Leinster support be held culpable this time. True, they were leaving Lansdowne Road before the end, but they had turned up in record numbers again, backing their team, especially in roaring them through the rearguard first quarter.

You wonder when Leinster will have opportunities like this to make the Munster-like connection between team and fans. By contrast, Munster restored Irish pride and in so doing saved the European Cup quarter-final weekend, though rich in occasion and tribalism, from being utterly anti-climactic in a competitive sense. It clearly still matters more to Munster, and so the faithful will remain just that.

Yet it's funny, in a fickle sort of way, how a few defeats can change the scenario. A month ago, Ireland were three from three and on course for the Grand Slam. Eddie, Drico and the rest walked on water, while Leinster and Munster were still in the quarter-finals of the European Cup, and Connacht in the Shield (where they are gamely clinging on now).

Yet, helped by the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that Ireland's frontline players and teams have been on a downward spiral, and despite the 10-week pre-season their best form was before Christmas. Meantime, the frontline French started their expanded domestic campaign in early August and have played more rugby, but with a Christmas rest are now flying. The Leinster and Munster players, who carry most of the load for Ireland as well, have played less matches, but look over-trained and mentally lacking rest or zest.

It was hard anyway not to be pessimistic in advance of last weekend, and all the more so in the days leading up to it. For the bad vibes coming from Leinster heightened the suspicion that Leicester were not only a stronger all-round unit but would also be in better nick.

Not only have Leinster's lineout, maul, defence and continuity fallen off over the last year or two, but at least seven or eight of the panel, including some in the 22, were very agitated over stalled contract negotiations and the resultant concerns over their futures. One is also loath to criticise Declan Kidney, one of the arch creators of the general rejuvenation, but the selections of Keith Gleeson and Ciarán Potts ahead of Shane Jennings and Victor Costello did not sit well inside or outside the camp.

Potts wasn't ready for this test, whereas Costello would have been inspired by it and in his farewell campaign his presence would probably have further galvanised long-standing team-mates.

Jennings, pound for pound, has been Leinster's forward of the season.

Gleeson's heart and mind were willing, but after just two and a half Leinster games, his body wasn't. Viewed in this light, it will be no wonder if Jennings (akin to Trevor Brennan and Bob Casey, with the strangely neglected Aidan McCullen liable to follow suit) heads abroad by taking up Leicester's offer as Neil Back's successor, coached by Back, and playing with England's leading club. For he'll also reason that if he wasn't picked in the current circumstances, then what chance next season?

You wonder about a process that left Alan Gaffney dangling until March with no apparent Plan B, and then obliged Kidney to formally apply and interview for the impending vacancy at his old Munster haunt, given it was bound to leak out. If that's where his heart, as well as his family is, so be it, and he looks now to be the marginal favourite ahead of Michael Bradley, with Jim Williams and Graham Steadman assuming greater roles.

Aside from questions about their squad make-up, it would leave Leinster looking for a fourth head coach in four years, but whether or not Kidney gets the Munster job, he has possibly burnt his bridges with Leinster.

Meantime, the IRFU's Player Advisory Group, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to grant Leinster their wish to sign David Holwell on a two-year deal, so he is heading home supposedly, although I here he's going to Leeds which, if true, doesn't say much about Leinster. Supremely professional and consistent throughout the chopping and changing in personnel and in competitions, and virtually mistake-free, he was sheer class on Saturday. One shudders to think what it would have been like without him.

All the while, whether cyclical or not, the conveyor belt from the under-age game and the once productive Academy is not what it was up until the last few years. Hence there will not be a vast turnover in players come the start of next season.

It's been a downbeat few weeks. Maybe it's the travel and the lack of sleep which prompts a somewhat gloomy view. But a raft of good quality players are coming toward the end of their careers. Half of Munster's 22-man squad (and seven of Leinster's) were in their 30s. The average age of Munster's backline was almost 31 (Biarritz's was less than 26). For all Ireland's worthy successes at schools level (always an over-inflated factor) and even reaching last year's Under-21 World Cup final, the only players under 25 in the weekend's cup squads were Jennings, Potts and Paul Devlin.

For the provinces, it's getting tougher with each passing year in Europe.

The big three in France, especially, are becoming wealthier and more ambitious, and the Welsh have not only caught up, but maybe, as Lynn Jones maintains, gone ahead. The notions of Ospreys have predictably raised fitness and standards, which only ostriches could not have seen, and their club game is clearly a vastly superior to the AIL as a back-up.

You wonder when chances like there have been in the last few years will come by again. If not then one Triple Crown may be all to show for a relatively golden era. There'd be no shame in that, but either way, damn it, there could have been more.