On Rugby: C'mon then, let's all make a big effort and wipe these smiles off our faces, writes Gerry Thornley

It's not easy though, or to avoid basking in the reflected glory of another epic Munster victory and a thoroughly classy effort by Leinster. That it came against two teams from "the best league in the world", including current hotshots and pacesetters, only made the achievements sweeter.

This competition has struck a chord with the Irish teams and public alike, and there have been combined performances on weekends before, but none have been of superior quality, not even Munster beating Leicester away and Leinster overcoming Biarritz three seasons ago at the quarter-final stages.

Because it means so much to the core support of both provinces, it wouldn't be stretching things to suggest that it meant more than many a Six Nations weekend. In Thomond Park on Saturday, and at the Rec on Sunday, it sure as hell felt that way.

Evidence of that came simply in the viewing figures. RTÉ's audience for Munster's win over Sale on Sunday achieved an all-time high for a Heineken European Cup match, attracting an average of 382,000 viewers, peaking at 478,000 in the dramatic finale. This compares with the estimated 40,000 Irish homes which tuned in to the Bath-Leinster game on Sunday on Sky Sports.

While that doesn't take into account audiences on public big screens, it demonstrates how much ERC have sacrificed by granting Sky sole live coverage from next season on.

The highest rating for a European Cup match previously was the 2002 final between Leicester and Munster, which attracted 297,000 viewers, and Saturday's figures compared favourably with Irish audiences for internationals.

Meantime, attendances for the pool stages again reached an all-time high of 660,004, which last year had broken through the 600,000 barrier for the first time with 633,530. It was compelling viewing right up to the last throes of the Bath-Leinster game. And so many ifs, buts and maybes.

If Leinster had enjoyed a more favourable rub of the green, or even a fairer share of Nigel Whitehouse's decisions in the opening tie with Bath at the RDS and won that game, they'd have finished top seeds with 25 points and 28 tries, and earned a home quarter-final against Bath (and sent Munster to Leicester in the last eight).

Had they opted for a drop goal in that frantic endgame to draw level, thereby earning an extra point for themselves and halving Bath's haul from four to two points, they'd have topped Pool Five and finished fourth in the rankings, thereby earning a home quarter-final with Munster.

Or had Tony Spreadbury not made a couple of highly contentious decisions at the last two scrums of the defeat in Bourgoin, Leinster would have finished as top seeds and ended up playing Sale at home.

All a bit hypothetical of course, and not much point in Leinster having too many regrets or beating themselves over the head about the way things have panned out. Such permutations, any more than the ever-chasing possibilities over the last weekend, are not designed to necessarily ensure the best eight reach the knock-out stages, much less to simplify things for all those involved - pundits and spectators alike. Yet all an integral part of the unique fun and games of the European Cup.

In any event, Leinster undoubtedly deserved to go through to the last eight, and the tournament would have been a hell of a lot poorer and even more contentious had Leeds, who finished ninth in the rankings, slipped through as eighth seeds courtesy of the four tries and five-point haul they were handed by the ERC for their twice-postponed tie in Calvisano.

This, after Cardiff rolled over and died on Saturday, would have given the English Premiership's bottom club a place in the quarter-finals by dint of also beating Calvisano at home and squeezing past Perpignan at home by Nigel Owens' decision to grant Gordon Ross a retaken conversion for some Catalan verbals.

Ironically, were it not for that decision, Perpignan would have finished as top seeds and entertained Leinster in the quarter-finals in Barcelona, while Munster would have ended up in Leicester. Of course, had Perpignan manufactured just another two tries to their haul of six in Sunday's 45-0 defeat of Calvisano at home, they would have had home advantage in the quarter-finals against Munster, who thus would have been sent to Spain for the second year in a row.

So, when we're rightly finished congratulating Leinster for helping Munster achieve a home tie (not that Leinster players and supporters will finish doing so for quite some time) it's worth reserving a few plaudits for Calvisano as well.

Perpignan led 31-0 at half-time on Sunday, by which stage they were already half-way toward their target with four tries, but according to one eyewitness the Italians "played out of their skins" in limiting the Catalans to just two more tries in the second-half. And given the soft group they were in, Perpignan have only themselves to blame. Munster are full value for their home quarter-final.

The pity, again, is that Munster and Leinster (with 50 tries between them from a dozen outings) can't carry on now while the momentum is with them. At least Toulouse too have 10 players involved in the Six Nations squad, the same as Leinster, although Perpignan have only seven, five of them in the French A squad, and unlike the Irish players, they will return to their clubs during the Six Nations.

Yet thanks to their two performances, easily the pick of the round, this was very much Ireland's weekend and has given a timely shot in the arm for the game here prior to the Six Nations after the dispiriting November series. It raises expectations of course, and with it the stakes for Eddie O'Sullivan.

But a host of players have hit form, the leaders are back, injuries are low, confidence is now brimming and the skill levels as well as the abundant choices are there. If he releases the shackles a little bit and lets them play as Munster and Leinster have done, the ride could be more fun that we'd dared to imagine.