RUGBY:LEINSTER PLAYERS and coaches lingering around a sun-kissed Riverview car park yesterday all seemed, understandably, in great form.

The poster boys of the squad, Jamie Heaslip and Cian Healy, climbed into their high-powered automobiles and sped away but Jonathan Sexton was a welcome visitor to the media huddle.

Joe Schmidt had just spent half an hour insisting any thoughts of the Millennium Stadium and Northampton are shelved as the focus immediately switches to Friday’s last regular Magners League game against the Glasgow Warriors at the RDS, where victory is required to ensure a home semi-final, potentially against Ulster, in less than a fortnight.

Only problem with that logical instruction was that we only wanted Sexton to talk about the biggest fixture on the Northern Hemisphere’s rugby calendar.

A second European medal in three years would finally see Leinster climb up alongside Munster’s epic achievement of 2008.

Sexton’s late cameo in 2009 is already carved in the stone tablets of Irish rugby history. It sparked two lines of enquiry for the man who registered eight kicks from eight attempts in the culling of Toulouse last Saturday.

How valuable is the knowledge he banked two years ago and would it mean even more to win it this time round?

“I suppose all these experiences that you build up they do help. It will help in the build-up but we haven’t really thought about the Heineken Cup final. It has just been drilled into us for the last half an hour that it is back to Magners League duty this weekend and everything is about trying to get a home semi-final,” he said.

Okay, fair enough. But he did record Northampton’s dismantling of Perpignan and watched it yesterday. “We are wary about what happened last year,” Sexton continued.

“We were in the semis of both (the Magners league and Heineken Cup) and suddenly it all got taken away. The final of the Magners at home when we lost to the Ospreys still leaves a bitter taste even now. And losing away to Toulouse in the semis.

“Last season could have been a brilliant season and we finished with nothing. We are in the same situation again. It could be a brilliant season. It is up to us to finish it. We have potentially four games left. If we can win all four it will be something that no one has ever done before.”

Sexton says this with his usual humble, yet determined demeanour. Only Manchester United and Barcelona are chasing a similar dream in European sport at the minute. Oh, and Northampton.

“It would mean more to me now if we won this year because I have played every game. It would feel like I really contributed whereas that year I was just trying to not let the team down. It would probably be sweeter this year,” said Sexton.

“We are a tight bunch now at the moment so it would be good to win with this group of players.”

The team meeting presumably allowed some reflection on Toulouse. It is already seen in some quarters as Leinster greatest ever triumph but Sexton had a more practical take on how events panned out.

“I don’t think it was the best performance, I think it was the most satisfying that we beat one of the best sides in Europe. They probably have the best history in this competition,” he explained.

“But in many ways we did it the hard way. We gifted them a lead. It is hard to play against teams like that when they have a good lead and seven points is a good lead in those games. We are just happy with the way we chipped away at the lead and no one panicked.

“There were a lot of technical things and moves that we had practised that didn’t quite come off. We probably lost our set-piece a little in the first half but they are all things we can learn from.

“We planned to start the game a certain way but they counteracted that with very fast line speed. They smashed us behind the gainline a good few times, turned over a couple of our set-pieces so we struggled to get a platform at the start and then they got the soft try.

“But that’s what I am talking about. No one panicked. We regrouped and just said don’t try and chase the game. Just try and chip away at them. And we did.”

The suggestion is put to him that Leinster’s collapse in Thomond Park on April 2nd, when a 20-9 half-time lead was reversed for a 23-24 defeat by Ronan O’Gara’s last-gasp penalty, provided a priceless lesson. For certain, the drive home from Limerick that night must have seemed a lot longer than the two-hour stretch up the new road.

“That could be a turning point in our season. At the time we were fairly angry with the way the game ended, the way the second half went. I suppose we learnt a lot from that and maybe moments like that make you stronger.”