‘This will not break us, this group will never fade away’ – Will Connors

It was at that moment the magnitude of Leinster’s third Champions Cup final defeat in three years really hit home.

“They stand by you for everything,” Connors said of his loved ones.

“It’s hard to look back on this day with any kind of joy. But to look up in the crowd and see them and know that they’re hurting with you, that’s all you can ask for.”

Caelan Doris had spoken at Friday’s pre-match press conference about not wanting to relive that horrible feeling of waking up on Sunday and Monday morning knowing that Leinster had let another shot at history slip from their grasp.

But the reality of this latest bitterly disappointing loss at the hands of Toulouse is that the pain may linger for even longer than before.

Today's Sports News in 90 Seconds - 27th May

The only saving grace from a Leinster perspective is that the URC is still very much up for grabs and while Leo Cullen and his players are confident they can quickly overcome the heartbreak of losing in extra-time, the proof will be in the pudding over the next few weeks.

“It’s fairly sick, to be honest. It hurts,” Connors (28) sighed. “The last few years have hurt. There are no other words for it.

“We could have been a little bit more clinical. We usually pride ourselves in that. In fairness, you look at Toulouse they were good at scrambling, it’s the heartbeat of their game, we probably didn’t deal with it well enough. They got over the ball, a few of their lads were good over the ball, and it just went their way.

“You look at the last few years, you look at today, we’re still an incredible squad, we’ve top-end players across every position, you know that’s not going to break us.

“We’re going to come together, we still have the URC to bounce back with, we want a strong finish there, it’s a really tight group. This group will never fade away. We’re all mad to get that extra star on, to create a legacy that we’re all striving to do. We go again next year, we’ll bounce back.”

Leinster have no other choice. They are far too good to have gone since 2018 without winning a Champions Cup, and while the world-class signings of RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett will make them even stronger next season, four final defeats since their last European success in Bilbao will sting.

​“We’re hurting, there is no other way to put it,” back-row Connors continued.

“We’re in there, we’ll share each other’s company again, like the group is incredibly strong, it’s always been strong, that’s what we pride ourselves on, we’ve come the whole way up together, we’re best mates in there, you know we didn’t win today, we didn’t get the luck of the draw. We just have to bind together again and keep bouncing at it.

“We’ve got the quality, you look at even lads who weren’t playing today, top-quality players who are chomping at the bit to play top-end rugby.

“With the players that are still here, everyone is going to group together again. We come together, we put our best foot forward for the URC, we do everything we can to bring a trophy home with us. We set out this year to do the double and look it’s not over yet for us.

“I could never fault the effort I see in the group. Even at the end there, lads were on the pitch for a 100 minutes and they were still doing absolutely everything to cover each other, chasing across to cover potential line-breaks. Lads never up on each other, that’s created through years of bonds.

“That brothers mentality, we’re all best mates in there, we’re all friends, we’ll never lose that, we’ll always have that to fall back on. I’ll never fault the effort of the lads. Everyone gave everything they could. We’ll go back and discuss how things could have gone differently.”

That defiant message was echoed by centre Robbie Henshaw, who said: “The difference between this year and last year is we fully believed, even up to the last few minutes, that we were going to go and win.

“There is full confidence in the group that we will win. Obviously not this year but we’ll keep building and keep building. We can’t look back, you have to keep going forward.

“We have a chance to go out next week and put our best shot into the URC and try and win a trophy this year.”

As for the squad’s message for the Leinster supporters who forked out large sums to get to London only to see their side come up short yet again, Kildare native Connors added: “All we can ask is they stand by us and they always do. We’re going to keep giving our best, to do it for our families, to do it for Leinster.

"That’s all we can ask for.”