"It's going to take a while for that to sink," he said.
"We didn't take our chances, full stop. They did. In the first half we had a lot of territory, possession in their 22. We didn't come away with enough points.
"In the second half we had our opportunites near their goal line and we're forcing things. Credit to them, they were tenacious."
It was the end of an era too for Simon Zebo, RG Snyman, Antoine Frisch and Joey Carbery (who did not feature on Saturday due to injury. They will all be moving on this summer, denied the chance to head off with one more piece of silverware added to their Munster CVs.
"We say goodbye to big characters and they deserve better; somebody spoke about that in the dressing room," Rowntree added.
"But you know I'm proud of how we finished the season. We topped the league, you earn a home semi-final, and then not to get the job done, it's hugely disappointing. It's going to take a while to sink in as I say.
"The game became quite fractured in the second half. It didn't suit us. We were almost trying too hard with the ball.
"I stand here now and it feels a bit surreal. We're going to to have to suck it up, get on with it. It's going to sting for a long time, but I'm proud where we finished the season."
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