Leinster reaction:Belief was the key to Leinster's Heineken European Cup win over Leicester, according to captain Leo Cullen and head coach Michael Cheika.

Leinster became European champions for the first time after a thrilling 19-16 victory at Murrayfield.

Despite enjoying the better of the game, Leinster fell 16-9 behind shortly after half-time. But a superb score from Jamie Heaslip and a nerveless 40-metre penalty from the excellent Johnny Sexton turned the contest on its head.

"I suppose just hanging in there, showing a bit of belief," said flanker Cullen, when asked what won the game for his side. "The period when we were down to 14 men was pretty costly. They came at us pretty strongly.

"We went seven points down and just to hang in there was pretty vital. I think the belief was always there that we could win the game."

Cheika added: "I just think we believed in ourselves to come back.

"We played quite well, I thought, in the first part of the game. When we went behind, we just started dropping off a few tackles in close.

"It got to seven behind and they started cranking up their machine, they started counter-rucking us, they were taking it hard at the line and really started to try and dominate us.

"We were able to stay in there and come back."

Man of the match Rocky Elsom, who was recently named Leinster's Player of the Year, was delighted to land the biggest prize in club rugby in his debut season.

The Australian flanker said: "You want days like these but there were times during the year when we didn't play as well as we'd like and it looked pretty long odds for us to make it through to the final.

"But we got ourselves back on track and I think, the last three games, there was just a lot of clarity about what we wanted to do."

In contrast to his fellow forward, Cullen is a Leinster veteran.

"It has been a long time coming," he said of the win. "Going back seven, eight, nine years ago - those sorts of periods - when some of us were coming through as younger players, the was a certain amount of expectation.

"We had a pretty talented bunch of players but never really delivered on our promise."

Cullen hailed the impact Cheika has made since taking over in 2005.

He said: "When I went to England four years ago, Leinster at that time were in a little bit of disarray.

"When 'Cheiks' came in, he instilled a real work ethic and a bit more edge about the team.

"He slowly built, I think, over the last number of years so a huge amount of credit has to go to him. The organisation is just at a different level to what it was before he came in."

He added: "Hopefully, this will be a stepping stone for us to go on and be successful for many years to come."

Tigers boss Richard Cockerill refused to make excuses for his side's defeat, despite the game coming a week after their gruelling Guinness Premiership win over London Irish.

He said: "We're disappointed that we lost, obviously, but it was a tight game and there was three points difference.

"We couldn't have given any more, could we? The boys played their hearts out. It's been a tough run-in for us.

"No complaints. You accept winning; you have to accept losing.

"Of course, we want to win. I'm not a great loser but you have to be dignified in defeat and that's us."

He added: "We should be very pleased and proud of our season, because we're English champions, we've lost by three points in the Heineken final.

"It could have gone either way. They have to take the credit for winning it, because they've won it.

"We were fresh, we were into the game - I'm not going to use that as an excuse."