'I'm gutted to be quite honest'

REACTION: GEORDAN MURPHY fears he may never get over the devastation of Leicester's defeat to Leinster. The full-back is still haunted by the club's mauling by Wasps in the 2007 final.

And he insists seeing many of his Ireland team-mates finally land club rugby’s biggest prize was of scant consolation.

“It’s always going to be bitter,” said Murphy, who equalled the record of most individual final appearances of four yesterday.

“We lost in the final in 2007 and that still grates me, so I’m sure this will stay with me for a long time.

“On the flip side of that, fantastic for those guys. I can appreciate what it means to them.

“But I wanted more than anything to win for Leicester.”

Murphy was dealt a number of blows. An eye injury was his concern coming into the match and a hip flexor muscle went into spasm during in the first half, which forced an early exit. Understandably he was sore and far from garrulous.

“It was actually my hip flexor that went at the end of the first half,” said Murphy. “I said at half-time to ‘Cockers’ (Leicester coach Richard Cockerill) that I was struggling with it and when I got back out there for the second half, it wasn’t really firing.”

He added: “It’s not nice, obviously, to have to sit and watch that and not be a part of it, so I’m gutted to be quite honest.”

Murphy was philosophical about the defeat, saying: “I think we played reasonably well and Leinster played that little bit better. The two drop goals that they got were at key times and they kept the scoreboard ticking over nicely.”

Cockerill talks a hard game of rugby. But after the burial of their Murrayfield dream don’t ask the former England front row to pick holes in a side that last week became Premiership champions. The Leicester coach, flanked by captain Murphy and Ben Kay, sat at the top table and we all expected them to be like the three wise men. They were not. As very often happens in defeat, the details of the how and why were unspoken, or, confused.

But Cockerill was faced with answering for a team which can asphyxiate opponents more efficiently than any other in England, but one that ‘surrendered’ a seven- point lead.

“We didn’t surrender anything,” he argued. “They (Leinster) are a good side. They put pressure on us and they took their chance. I think it’s a bit dramatic to say we surrendered a seven- point lead. . . .

“We worked bloody hard and they had the breaks in the game and they won. Look the (Leicester) boys have been manful the whole year. Our run has been the best of any domestic team in Europe from after Christmas. We came up short today. Not by much but it’s small margins in big games.

“I think it’s harsh to use that terminology. It’s a bitter pill when you lose. We could have won, we lost. You got to give them credit for that because they stuck in the game and they fought hard too. That’s sport.”