The slow walk of the vanquished team from the dressing-room to the awaiting team bus in the bowels of a stadium has rarely been made more bitterly. Leinster players filed out of the ground quietly and dispiritedly.
For some an opportunity such as this will not arrive again, but for others, such as Jordi Murphy, he admitted he will carry the memory of this defeat as a spur for the remainder of his career.
“We came here and we gave it our best shot and just came up a bit short,” said the crestfallen flanker, whose 10 tackles were second only to Sean O’Brien’s 12, with the excellent Devin Toner and Mike McCarthy on nine.
“With the amount of people who wrote us off, we came here with the right mind frame and we can be proud of ourselves. Like I said, we just came up short.”
Hammer and tongs
“It was certainly hammer and tongs the whole time,” added Murphy. “No one gave way. It showed after 80 minutes with 12 points each and not a try scored. It’s obviously great to play here in front of a huge crowd and you could feel the atmosphere the whole way through the game.”
Reflecting on his first European Cup semi-final, Murphy said: “I’ve got a taste of it now and I know how close I was to playing in my first European final. I’ll keep that memory now for years to come and if I’m in that position again I’ll do my best not to feel the way I did here after a hundred minutes of rugby.”
Meanwhile, the ever-engaging Ali Williams could look back on his yellow card and note dryly: "It was almost a turning point. I got sent off (sic) and everyone went 'let's start getting into it.' We got the penalty and Brian got his try. I'll claim a lot of credit for that. It was a very tactical move. I've probably got a text now from Wayne (Barnes) saying 'sorry' I reckon. It was pretty harsh. It's rugby, isn't it? That's the beauty of it."
Aggrieved to have received a yellow, Williams maintained that rugby needs to decide whether a player in the air can be challenged for the ball, the ex-All Blacks lock said his immediate thoughts were unprintable.
“There’s not words I can actually say to you about the thoughts going through my head, in more ways than one. I got a message from a good mate, Corey Flynn, and some of the words he used were basically saying: ‘things were really tight down there, weren’t they?’ Mate, I thought I’d ruined it for the whole team basically. What can I say?”
Williams said of the match itself: “It was fantastic. I think Leinster turned up, didn’t they? I mean, they turned up and they played and they bashed us and we bashed them. It was sort of tit for tat really and I think it just shows what a great competition and what great sides there are in Europe.
Fantastic competition
“I personally think it’s a fantastic competition, and the fact that Leinster came from last season’s quarter-final and then come here and do that, and they almost won, let’s be honest. No it’s good. Right lads. Enjoy the rosé. Have some fun.”
Bryan Habana said of his intercept try: "You sort of hope things might happen like that in a game. Everyone said the intercept was awesome but when you have a guy like Rudi Wolf inside me pushing up into their faces, it forced a decision. Do I float that ball over? Do I keep the ball? And when he decides to float it over, I'm in the right side at the right time.
“Leinster deserve a lot of accolades for the way they played for 100 minutes. They came here with nothing to lose, they showed intensity and were led impeccably by Jamie Heaslip. They dominated scrum and lineout, we were found wanting.
“Their kicking game was sound, their wings were sound, they tested us and when you’re giving away penalties that means the other team are playing well. They had motivation after last year and for 95 minutes they did really well. For 80 minutes we weren’t happy with where we are so it’s great to be able to hang on.”
