On January 21st this year in a bar in Biarritz, some of the longer-serving Leinster players reflected on another season that bit the dust prematurely when a 30-10 defeat to the French side denied them a European Cup quarter-final for the fifth season running. "We had a beer or 20," admits their coach Matt Williams.
The beer was accompanied by some navel contemplation. That was effectively the seventh season in the Leinster squad for Victor Costello and Shane Byrne, and the likes of Reggie Corrigan and Trevor Brennan have been there almost as long. Costello admits they'd grown weary of the continuous underachievement.
"Myself and a few of the other guys were saying 'we've come close but we haven't won anything and we really want to win something'. Myself and Shane were in Blackrock (College), where we were used to winning, until the age of 20."
Williams told them they could win things if they were even more professional, worked harder than they'd ever worked before, not only to make themselves better-conditioned athletes but to further improve their ball skills.
This week Williams reminded them of that conversation and added: "Now's your chance."
On Saturday Leinster took their chance brilliantly, recovering from being a man down and 15-6 adrift into the wind early in the second-half to win a pulsating Celtic League final 24-20 against their bete noir of recent years, Munster.
In winning with 14 men, as Williams said, Leinster proved they have the passion and the gumption they have supposedly lacked in the past. "They've got to get the credit now," he said.
"I'm delighted for boys like Reggie, Vic, Shane, all the lads who've been there a long time and things have been said about them, they've been discarded. I thought they had great games in the biggest cauldron they've been in at provincial level.
"There's a whole lot of layers to it. For guys like Roly (Meates, the forwards coach), who has given his life to the game and probably was treated in a manner that would have hurt him enormously, to have everyone turn their backs on you - and the trouble when you don't coach is that sometimes you feel you have something to offer and you're not allowed to. To give him a shot at it I gotta say it gave me great joy."
Williams also praised others in the background team: Alan Gaffney, Willie Anderson and Ken Ging. "I think I've been involved (in rugby) my whole life, and that's why you do it. For days like this."
At no other point in the last few years would Leinster have won a match such as this, Costello said. "We wouldn't have had the belief. There's more steel there. You go into a game and you look at the guys beside you and you trust them. It's not a case of feeling you have to do it yourself or gamble on 'Briano' scoring a try.
"There are so many good players out there. It's a pleasure and a privilege to play in a team like that. We all respect each other and we all want to keep on winning."
Eric Miller's sending-off is a worry, however. In accordance with Celtic League rules whether he is suspended or not for the concluding European Cup pool games will be determined by an IRFU Disciplinary Committee.
