Two days on from Saturday's Champions Cup final, you get the sense that Leinster will still very much be licking their wounds on the back of their extra-time defeat against Toulouse.
This was the third season on the spin that Leinster lost on that stage, although you could argue that this one was the most difficult to stomach. The Irish province dominated in terms of territory, only to completely botch a number of excellent try scoring opportunities throughout the contest.
Once the game did go to extra-time, they found themselves in a good position to win it, with Toulouse down to 14 men for the second half of the afters. However, Leo Cullen's side would go on to concede two cheap kickable penalties after the restart, something that all but decided the result.
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French newspaper hammer Leinster after Champions Cup final loss
Plenty of questions have been asked about Leinster in the aftermath of this game, especially in relation to the mentality of the players. That is only fair when they have failed to get over the line on the biggest occasion yet again.
Nobody is doubting the talent within their squad, and with the possible exception of one or two spots, they possess world class operators at every position. However, there seems to be a clear mental block that is stopping them from performing to their best on the big stage.
It seems that some outside of Ireland have now all but given up on this group.
French newspaper Midi Olympique have published a withering takedown of this Leinster team and Irish rugby as a whole, suggesting there is something 'rotten' with the sport in this country. They would go on to pose some major questions about the mentality within in the group on the back of their repeated failures in the Champions Cup.
Clearly, there is something rotten in Irish rugby for its finest ambassadors to bend the knee when they should be turning it all around, whether at international level or in the Champions Cup.
And this extraordinary generation of rugby players must be more fragile than we think to be irreparably lost in the quarter- finals of the World Cup and beaten on the bottom step of our Champions League. So, what? And where is the problem?
Among the Green Devils, we don't really know anything about it. But from what we saw of the Blues on Saturday afternoon, at Tottenham, we can already say that Johnny Sexton has not been replaced in the Dublin attack...
How many balls did the Blues lose on Saturday in England? How many times have passes from Ross Byrne - who, having waited for Sexton to retire, is now 30 years old - landed in Hugo Keenan's pumps or on Robbie Henshaw's face?
There is no question here of shooting at the ambulance. And we greatly sympathise with Leo Cullen and his kids, when they say they are "devastated" by this new knockout. But while the Blues season will end at best in a month (on the evening of the URC final), we estimate without too much error that it is already over and that a title possibly acquired facing the great Satan of Munster or Jack White's Bulls would ultimately not change much in the resounding failure of Tottenham.
It doesn't get much more damning than that.
Leinster still have plenty to play for this season, with their URC campaign set to resume on Friday with a game against Connacht.
Still, regardless of how that competition plays out, you get the sense that the loss to Toulouse is going to sting for quite some time. The Leinster coaching team will just be hoping that the damage done in that game does not prove to be irreversible.
SEE ALSO: Stephen Jones Suggests Leinster Star Held Team Back During Toulouse Loss
