Seven days after their Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux-Begles, Leinster produced a ferocious response, tearing the Lions apart 59-10 to reach a home United Rugby Championship semi-final as James Lowe became the province's all-time leading try-scorer.
Planet Rugby's Investec Champions Cup Team of the Season picks Maxime Lucu over Antoine Dupont and loads the XV with eight Bordeaux players, while branding England's omission of Alfie Barbeary and Jack Willis 'self-harm'.
Asked in Bilbao whether the 41-19 defeat to Bordeaux was the worst of his five losing Champions Cup finals, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen refused to grade them. The coach acknowledged Bordeaux's clinical edge but insisted Leinster's job is simply to keep "banging at the door" — starting with a URC quarter-final against Glasgow seven days later.
Twelve months ago Salesi Rayasi was running out for Vannes in the French Pro D2. On Saturday night in Bilbao he stood in front of his Bordeaux teammates with a back-to-back Champions Cup winner's medal around his neck.
Leinster captain Caelan Doris pointed to the contact area and a 35-7 half-time hole after a 41-19 defeat to Bordeaux — the province's fifth Champions Cup final loss in as many seasons. The post-mortem is now structural.
Bordeaux-Begles dismantled Leinster 41-19 in Bilbao to retain the Champions Cup. Maxime Lucu took man of the match in his Basque homeland, Louis Bielle-Biarrey added another double, and the pundits called it the start of a French dynasty.
The numbers heading into Saturday's Investec Champions Cup final tell two very different stories. Bordeaux own the leaderboards for Champions Cup tries, defenders beaten and turnovers. Leinster have Jamison Gibson-Park and 502 passes.
Munster secured Champions Cup qualification with a 24-17 win over the Fidelity SecureDrive Lions in the URC regular-season finale, surviving a 13-man period and a 'spit in the face' stoppage that Two Cents Rugby called a first.
Respected SA rugby journalist Brenden Nel walks viewers through the actual SA Rugby press conference that triggered the 'South Africa quits Champions Cup' narrative — and explains why the legal, financial and logistical reality makes the headlines 'hysterical'.
SA Rugby is openly weighing a withdrawal from the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup, with a July workshop set to decide. Forever Sports breaks down the player-welfare crisis driving the call and the global-calendar fight underneath it.
Leo Cullen's 'love throwing the boot in' jab in his post-match media round captured a Leinster side that beat Toulon 29-25, came through 13 men and now head to Bilbao with the underdog tag and a serious bite.
After Bordeaux dispatched Bath in the Champions Cup semi-final, the Rugby Pod turned its full attention to the issue rugby's online sphere has been chewing over for 48 hours - whether French host broadcasters are quietly choosing which incidents the TMO ever gets to see.