The tag of underachievers that Leinster had shown signs of shaking off two seasons ago attaches firmly to their jerseys after this third away defeat of an abysmal European campaign.
Despite failing to reach the knockout stages for the first time in his three seasons in charge, coach Michael Cheika was adamant the squad are progressing.
"We know internally that the club is so much stronger than when we first came," he proffered. "And I'm not saying that to try and pump up my own situation. Realistically, we are a tougher outfit . . . best unity that we've had for a long time.
"The first year we caught a few teams on the hop. We were pretty lucky; a bounce here and a bounce there went our way. The second year we did okay but didn't manage the quarter-final (away to Wasps) very well.
"We definitely don't see ourselves going backwards as a team. That's one thing we need to be very clear on, with ourselves. I don't know how other people see us and I don't think that is being delusional.
"Our roster has changed a lot," Cheika continued. "Sometimes you got to look through that in the short term. Even I evaluate that for my own confidence when I look at the bigger picture, at where we're going and the teams we have had to play this year."
His argument carries some water in the context of facing the former champions Toulouse and Leicester, but the loss in Edinburgh negates such a defence. The fault lines evident in that 29-10 collapse were on show again on Saturday. When the forwards occasionally reached parity with a weakened Leicester pack, the backs lacked the angles of running required to penetrate a well organised defence.
Girvan Dempsey, who like many of his team-mates carried the bruises of a tough game, offered an explanation: "We tend to try to force offloads when they are not really on instead of trying to retain the ball. That's the style we have always played but teams are defending us a lot more shrewdly than they used to."
People have been quick to highlight a malfunctioning Brian O'Driscoll-Gordon D'Arcy axis, but Cheika was not convinced.
"You can't look at the two players in isolation," he said. "You've always got to look at it in the team performance. Obviously, teams are marking them harder too so there is an issue there, but I think some of the accuracy in passing are things we've got to work on a little bit more - not exactly work on them, but more concentration, more accuracy."Leinster outhalf Jonathan Sexton suffered a fractured thumb while playing for Leinster against Leicester in Saturday's match.
The thumb will be put in a cast for four weeks to allow the injury to heal and will therefore rule Sexton out of the Ireland Six Nations squad for that period.
