Leinster head coach Leo Cullen says his side were guilty of trying to sit on their lead in their Investec Champions Cup semi-final win over Northampton Saints, but believes the province deserve huge credit for how they "dug in there" to book their place in the decider.
Cullen's team remain on the hunt for a record-equaling fifth Champions Cup title, and will play either Toulouse or Harlequins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium final later this month.
A sold-out crowd of 82,300 were left on the edge of their seats as Leinster's 20-3 lead early in the second half was whittled down to 20-17 in the final minutes, but the province held on to secure their place in the final for an eighth time.
"Listen, it was an amazing occasion, wasn't it?" Cullen said after the game.
"Certainly, we got 80 minutes of entertainment, a little bit too exciting maybe at the end, but credit to the players, I thought they dug in well.
"That's not just the Leinster players, but Northampton, you have to give them a huge amount of credit, they fought to the very end.
"We dug in there at the end and we're delighted to get into another final."
It looked like Leinster would stroll to another comfortable semi-final win when James Lowe finished off his hat-trick early in the second half, but despite Leinster's players being well-rested leading into the game, they seemed to struggle in the final 25 minutes, inviting Northampton onto them as George Hendy and Tom Seabrook scored tries to make it a one-score game.
And Cullen admits his side were guilty of letting the Saints back into he game.
"The score goes to what, 20-3 pretty early in the second half, and then I suppose there's a human nature part to it. You can try and sit and protect what you have. That can be the real challenge, can you try and push on at that stage?
"We maybe struggled with that a little bit, but credit to Northampton as well. They dug in well defensively and made life tough for us. We didn't quite execute on certain things and they fight their way back into their game.
"They win a few 50:50 scraps and before you know it it's down to the wire. There's plenty of learnings there for our guys, some guys haven't played in the last couple of weeks, does that have an effect? I don't know.
"We're relieved to get through, we're delighted to get through, and we just need to focus on improving our game, so we're playing our best game for the final, but we'll try and focus on playing a good game next week as well," he added.
As Northampton started chewing into the Leinster lead, it was hard not to think of last year's final against La Rochelle, when Leinster lost from a 17-point head start.
But Cullen says while they were guilty of taking their foot off the gas, it wasn't down to complacency.
"You're playing knock-out games, so the team that's behind is going to be doing everything in their power to come back into the game and make it as tight as possible. You're playing against teams that have got through some serious quality teams, so they're high-quality teams at this stage of the competition.
"It's not like anyone thinks we're going to roll these guys over. Nobody is thinking that at any point. At 20 points to three we're not thinking it.
"There's always a bit where you can try sit and try manage the game out, but unfortunately you can manage yourself into a bit of trouble if you do that.
"The most important thing is that you get over the line, and we managed to get over the line thankfully."
The game-winning moment came from captain Caelan Doris, whose efforts at the breakdown won Leinster a penalty on the edge of their own 22 with barely 90 seconds left to play, which effectively iced the game.
The number 8 says his side showed just enough composure late on to seal the win.
"We came together and acknowledged that there was a bit of a lull, that they were going through a bit of a purple patch," he says of their nervous finale.
"Some of that was through our discipline, giving away back to back penalties which gave them entry into our half, but I think it's credit to them as well.
"They're top of the Premiership for a reason, when we were scouting them we saw their attack as one of the best we're going to face this season and you saw some of that in the second half as well.
"As much as we back our 'D', their attack probably got on top of us at times there. It was just pleasing to just about do enough in the last few minutes."
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