RUGBY/Edinburgh - 8 Leinster - 31: Leinster maintained the good fight until the end, and though it won't feel like it this morning or over the summer months, this was arguably their most consistent campaign in the professional era.
Unfortunately for them, they fell well short in the game that mattered most and then fell a point short of a consolation prize on the last weekend of the Celtic League.
Ultimately, Leinster didn't lose the title last night, but more obviously in Cardiff in their penultimate game. Here, Leinster could do no more than achieve the basic requirement of a bonus-point win with fully a quarter of the game remaining, doing so in typical style, all the more so in this match-up.
Seven previous games between these teams have thrown up just under 60 points on average (and only one Leinster win) but apart from the odd harum-scarum moments, they were always in control of what often resembled a sevens fixture - their galacticos making hay in the wide open spaces of Murrayfield.
Leinster's desperation to atone for the Cardiff catastrophe last time out and stamp their authority on this patchwork Edinburgh team was evident from the kick-off. In their haste to make every half break count they forced the pass a little, and of the four knock-ons in the opening exchanges one prevented Gordon D'Arcy scoring off a typical inside offload by Felipe Contepomi.
For a while, it looked like it might be one of those horror Irish treks to Murrayfield as Edinburgh began to get their offloading game going. Number eight David Callam broke through Keith Gleeson's tackle in midfield off a lineout and after Will Green was binned for obstruction off the ball, Ander Monro opened the scoring with the resultant penalty.
Yet, somehow typically, Leinster responded with their most productive spell of the half when reduced to 14 men. Jamie Heaslip gathered a loose tap-down to make inroads and offload to Guy Easterby; Gordon D'Arcy switched the point of attack and when Leinster used the full width of the pitch by coming back to the right again, Shane Horgan took two tackles and freed his hands to put Brian O'Driscoll over in the corner.
Within five minutes, Gleeson gathered a loose tap-down at the tail of an attacking lineout and O'Driscoll took a hard, straight line from deep to break the tackles of Monro and Matt Dey and score under the posts.
The good work was, however, partly undone when, with Leinster back to full strength, Rory Lawson broke through a porous defence and Scott Murray followed up deft handling by the frontrowers Ally Dickinson and Andrew Kelly to burrow over from close-range, albeit with the strong suspicion of a knock-on in front of the touch judge.
Leinster regrouped at the interval and quickly showed their almost peerless ability off broken play. O'Driscoll was the catalyst, latching onto an Edinburgh turnover inside halfway and making good ground to link with Horgan. He in turn found Contepomi on his inside before the latter returned what looked like a forward offload for Horgan to score.
The bonus point win was sealed by Contepomi in trademark fashion, sidestepping through three would-be tacklers to score his 15th try of the season.
By the time a penalty opportunity arose nearing the hour mark, Leinster were content to take the three points and take Contepomi's seasonal tally to 418 points.
The last quarter was simply a matter of marking time till the end of the match and the season, awaiting updates from Swansea and David Humphreys's dramatic finale. The noisy band of 200 or so supporters, who had maintained their bodhrábeat and chants of Allez Les Bleus for much of the night, then waved Eric Miller off into retirement.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 16 mins: Monro pen 3-0; 17: O'Driscoll try, Contepomi con 3-7; 22: O'Driscoll try, Contepomi con 3-14; 38: Murray try 8-14; (half-time 8-14). 46: Horgan try, Contepomi con 8-21; 52: Contepomi try and con 8-28; 59: Contepomi pen 8-31.
EDINBURGH GUNNERS: F Leonelli; M Pyke, P Godman, M Dey, N de Luca; A Monro, R Lawson (capt); A Jacobsen, A Kelly, A Dickinson; F Pringle, S Murray; M Mustchin, A Strokosch, D Callam. Replacements: A MacDonald for Pringle (5-20 mins) and for Monro (70 mins), G Laidlaw for Lawson (49 mins), B Cairns for Key (53 mins), C Smith for Dickinson, R Rennie for Murray, S Webster for de Luca (all 55 mins), D Hall for Kelly (59 mins). Sinbinned: Jacobsen (66-76 mins).
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, D Hickie; F Contepomi, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Jackman, W Green; A Byrnes, M O'Kelly; N Ronan, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: R McCormack for Ronan (24-25 mins) and for Corrigan (63 mins), R Kearney for Lewis (59 mins), K Lewis for D'Arcy (69 mins), E Miller for Ronan (70 mins), B O'Riordan for Easterby (71 mins), D Blaney for Jackman (73 mins), D Toner for Byrnes (77 mins). Sinbinned: Green (15-25 mins), Byrnes (66-76 mins).
Referee: N Whitehouse (Wales)
