Nobody beats Munster twice? They could play down the revenge factor all they liked for last year's 15-9 defeat in the final and Neil's Backhander in the last play, and they were clinical in how they went about their task, but it was there.

"Definitely," agreed Jim Williams. "It was just something that you tried not to focus on too much, but as for personal motivation, I can't speak for all the guys," he added, laughing, "but that was definitely there. It was certainly a motivating point for the lads individually."

There's the buoyancy that comes with the inner knowledge that their season is alive and kicking in bonus territory after appearing dead in the water a couple of months ago. "This side of the draw is very tough and it's going to be a very good side that gets to that final," said Williams.

Damned if they're going to let Leinster hog it until the end of the season. Williams wouldn't have that, and played the diplomacy card. "It's great to see two great sides there and that two of them are Irish. We'd obviously love to be there (in the final) and it's great to see the other side going well."

Nevertheless, Anthony Foley was sitting beside Malcolm O'Kelly in the Ireland dressing-room after the Grand Slam decider two weeks ago when Dorian West came in and said to O'Kelly "see you in the final". Reflecting on that, Foley gave a knowing smile. He marked that one down. "But we didn't want to get distracted by other things. We always sought to focus on the process of the match, to get that right and let other factors take care of themselves."

"It was the same as the Gloucester game. Everybody worked so hard. If anybody made a mistake, somebody else would cover for him. And we had unbelievable support again. They push you to push yourself that bit more."

The 10 minutes of injury seemed cruel. "Somebody said afterwards that we must have been time wasting when we led 3-0," quipped Foley. "It looked like Munster Cup rugby, that we were going to hammer them 3-0."

Absorbing the magnitude of this win was hard, especially for somebody who had slugged it out in the coalface.

"I'm absolutely knackered. It hasn't sunk in," admitted Frankie Sheahan.

It was a jungle in there. "It was a bit rough, but sure that's par for the course. I think it was always going to be won and lost in the setpiece. I think last year they got the better of us in the lineouts. Today we disrupted their lineouts and it paid off.

"I think we were possibly a bit naive when it came to the final last year and they had done their homework a lot more. But they say you learn more from losing than winning," added Sheahan, echoing an old Declan Kidney maxim.

"I certainly learned a lot from that final last year, and we did our homework, and I'm delighted with the way it went. I had my own ups and downs last year, and I just learned to relax when we got to our own ball. Panic is half the thing, that's why a lot of teams lose ball. Every time I went up to the ball you might have seen me walking. I wasn't rushing it."

During the injury time, Sheahan admitted, he was hurting. "I just said keep pushing myself, I was cramping, I was absolutely in bits, but I just mentally had to push myself as much as I could and defensively not come out of my line."

Dean Richards, the Leicester coach, admitted his side had suffered "a comprehensive defeat", adding with the knowledge of someone who appreciates a good scrap along the gain line that "Munster are an excellent team. The outplayed us in all the areas of the game that matter. They put us under pressure and we made mistakes. It could be said that we had guys in the Six Nations, but so did they, and they made less mistakes."