Just over an hour after the final whistle blew on Leinster's latest failed Champions Cup bid, Robbie Henshaw's admitted that his side were "not ourselves".
Toulouse were crowned European champions for a record-extending sixth occasion after an epic 31-22 victory that required extra-time at the magnificent Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
While the French outfit took their shots at goal to establish a foothold, Leinster tried to break through the line but were let down by sloppy handling and an excellent defensive display by Toulouse.
"It's a tough one to take," said the 30-year-old Ireland centre after Leinster's third final defeat in a row during which they conceded 15 penalties to Toulouse's 16.
"Hard to summarise it. It was a game that had everything. Probably, looking back we were a little bit, I don’t know, not ourselves in that first period.
"In that first half we had loads of chances and a few balls just didn’t go to hand whereas it usually would.
"It will be tough to look back on it and see where it was lost. We had loads of chances.
"We didn’t hit our full performance...and finish them off in attack.
"We let ourselves down a little bit around the ruck, the breakdown, they came hard there at us and that stopped the momentum at crucial times."
Incredibly loud, here we go! pic.twitter.com/MxXNaPznWK
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The game was played in a deafening environment in front of 61,531 fans and Henshaw revealed that, at times, it was difficult to communicate on the pitch but rejected the suggestion the pressure of the two previous final defeats had a bearing.
"The stadium was incredible. You literally couldn’t hear a thing out there at times. Sometimes that little breakdown in communication has an effect on a pass or something like that.
"Definitely the environment, it was like a cauldron, and you literally couldn’t hear a thing.
"Potentially that had an impact but we were fully confident today that we were well able for it.
"The difference between this year and last year is we fully believed, even up to the last few minutes, that we were going to go and win.
"There is full confidence in the group that we will win.
"Obviously not this year but we’ll keep building and keep building. We can’t look back, you have to keep going forward.
"We have a chance to go out next week and put our best shot into the URC and try and win a trophy this year."
Leo Cullen's side, third in the BKT URC table, host Connacht at the RDS on Friday night in the final round of the regular season.
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