'Everyone is pretty devastated in there' - Sexton

Johnny Sexton put on a brave face, but it was hard to mask the dejection in the aftermath of their Heineken Champions Cup final defeat to La Rochelle.

The four-time champions were once again undone by the power and physicality of Ronan O'Gara'a La Rochelle, who struck for the winning try in the 79th minute to seal their first ever major title.

And although Leinster led for the majority of the game, they lived off scraps, with the French side worthy winners having outscored the favourites by three tries to nil.

"Everyone is pretty devastated in there," said Sexton after the game.

While Arthur Retiere's winning try came with 80 seconds remaining, by the time Ihaia West had converted to make it 24-21, the clock was in the red, and referee Wayne Barnes blew the final whistle.

"It's a tough way to lose, in the last second, and not even have a chance to come back and try and win the game.

"A couple of slips, and fair play to Retiere for reaching out. It was tough to take. Obviously there were a lot of things that didn't go our way in the last 30 minutes when we were in control of the game. That's the devastating bit."

Leinster rarely looked like scoring a try, aside from a big stand on the La Rochelle goalline late in the first half, before ultimately settling for three points.

"We had chances to score, probably, at times, and we could have been a bit more aggressive and gone for tries on a couple of those penalties, because they were repeatedly infringing. But we decided to keep the scoreboard ticking over, but hindsight is a great thing, everyone is an expert.

"We made the decisions, and we were in control. A couple of big moments, a couple of big decisions that put them in a position to get into our 22.

"Fair play to the lads, how