Lancaster: 'Shut up, move on' mantra key for Leinster

The stench of two painful defeats hangs around the Leinster camp this week but Stuart Lancaster says the team will summon their inner 'Sumo' to freshen the place up.

Unused to losing, Leo Cullen and his side have had to deal with the magnified effects of Saturday's URC semi-final loss at the hands of Munster.

Defeat, in an interpro, to fiercest rivals Munster, at home, to exit the competition.

With a Heineken Champions Cup final (Saturday, 4.45pm) against La Rochelle looming large, how do Leinster deal with the grieving process?

"You’ve got to get from 'what’s the problem to what’s the solution' as quickly as you can," Lancaster, the senior coach who will take charge at Racing 92 next season, told RTÉ Sport.

"The first thing you do in the changing room is address the initial feelings and try to give them a sort of understanding as to what happened and why it happened but also some clarity about what’s going to come next.

"The review is important, how you construct the review as a coach, how you put the analysis together.

"Reflect on the positive parts of the game. It was an amazing game of rugby, wasn’t it. Forty-four minutes ball in play, two great teams going at it.

"It’s making sure we draw the broad lessons out of what we can do better and then applying it to this week, which is huge.

"We SUMO as well, we have the phrase SUMO: shut up and move on, and you have to put it to bed and not drag it around 'cos if you spend all your time looking backwards, you can’t see what’s in front of you."

Perhaps it’s a blessing that the final comes so soon after getting sucker-punched by Munster but around the corner is a familiar foe, one that has beaten them in Europe for the last two seasons running.

The die was cast early in the 2021