Cheika disappointed as Leinster fall short

Michael Cheika took scant consolation from Leinster's fighting spirit as the champions bowed out of the Heineken Cup with a 26-16 defeat by Toulouse.

Tournament favourites Toulouse booked their place in the final on May 22 with a impressive second-half display that saw Yannick Jauzion and man of the match David Skrela touch down.

"We're very disappointed because we felt we had it in us to go two finals in a row, which isn't easy to do," he said. "We felt like we'd built up the momentum in the team to do that."

He added: "We fought as hard as we could. Maybe once upon a time that would have been seen as a really courageous loss.

"We put everything on the line and physically we were good, taking it right to them, but you have to be accurate at this level.

"We knew that we'd be battling good periods of the game when they had a lot of momentum and we had to keep our shape which we did reasonably well.

"But what killed us was the management of our possession. We let ball go too easily and probably kicked it away too much.

"We still had enough opportunities in the game if we'd just been more clinical in attack.

"We kept giving the ball back to them and that enabled them to build their momentum."