THE Celtic Tiger may be long gone but there is no doubt that nights like Friday at the RDS can lift the spirits of players and fans a like.
You always know a game you have been involved in really affects the general public when, four days later, you are filling your car with diesel and everyone else doing the same wants to talk to you about the match. That happened to me on my way to training this morning.
We had to show grit, class, huge work rate and massive self belief to become the first side to claim their place in the semi-final where we will be away to Toulouse who put Stade Francais to the sword on Sunday with a very impressive display.
We needed to show the same qualities that helped us win the cup last season by being resolute up-front and quick-witted across the back line.
We didn’t play as well as we wanted to but hung in there and fought for every inch of ground and blade of grass. People will say that we were lucky Clermont fly-half Brock James fluffed two drop-goal sitters in the closing minutes, one with the very last play.
It was damning for him that he missed 23 points in all but I believe we would have found a way to win even if he had been successful. Jonathan Sexton was brilliant for us kicking 19 points and we came back from a very tough start after which we found ourselves 10-0 down after 20 minutes.
Our discipline was very poor and we will have to get our penalty count sorted if we want to lift a trophy in May. The 3,000 Clermont fans that made the trip added enormously to the noise and colour on the night and the 8pm kick off gave people a chance to have a few beers which loosened the throats and the stadium rattled from start to finish.
Once again the Heineken Cup has moved up another notch in terms of its appeal and standard. For interest and intensity this was at test match levels.
The contact area was unbelievably intense and as a pack we got outmuscled on occasions. I feel that this Clermont team is the best side that I have ever played against and it was great to knock them out of the tournament.
There was another class performance from Jamie Heaslip who plays a man of the match level every week and scored both Leinster tries.
But Clermont wing Julien Malzieu scored a hat-trick which will have put our defence coach in a bad mood.
I got on in the 74th minute and we were defending a one-point lead but under intense pressure in our own half.
Discipline was paramount as a penalty for Clermont at that stage would surely have been kicked. The decision had already been made to switch their kicker to Morgan Parra who had an 85% success rate for France in the Six Nations.
I never even looked like getting to touch the ball but there was the opportunity to get to work and I was happy to see on the stats sheet that I made six tackles with no misses in those six minutes.
Stan Wright stole the show with 16 tackles in 80 minutes which for a prop is very impressive.
The place went wild when the ref blew the final whistle and I enjoyed clapping the crowd afterwards as it was probably my last ever Heineken Cup match in the RDS. What a way to finish.