Opposition view: 'Pretty horrific feeling' in Leinster camp after loss to Saints

Cullen's side were big favourites to progress to the Investec Champions Cup showpiece in Cardiff on May 24, but they fell short in the semi-final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Saints flew into a 27-15 lead by half-time and eventually held on at the end, securing a turnover on their own line and booting the ball out to put the seal on a memorable success.

And when asked about the post-match mood in the Leinster dressing room, Cullen said: "It’s a pretty sombre place as you can imagine.

"You set off at the start of the season and you know the final is in Cardiff. Everything is building towards that.

"There is so, so much work goes into a team getting to a semi-final. When you lose it is pretty horrific and that is the feeling we are experiencing at the moment because I think it was one of those games.

"You’d love to have another crack at straight away but unfortunately you don't get that opportunity and that’s sport.

"So, not many people were giving Northampton a chance coming into the game. They come away with a famous victory and, unfortunately, it’s at our expense.

"As I said at the start you can’t take anything away from them the way they set out their stall. Some of the things they executed, how clinical they were, and even they came up with a way to hold us out at the end.

"I’m not sure how they managed to do it but they managed to do it. So, yeah, it’s pretty a pretty horrific feeling for the group right now."

Cullen added: "We were maybe inaccurate in stages in the first half and I thought Northampton were very good in terms of some of their counter-attack and they hit us on the counter a couple of times with some sucker punch tries.

"Tommy Freeman, I thought he was excellent in terms of his speed, the finish. He scores his hat-trick in the first half.

"Quite often when you fall behind we get a little bit jittery and we’re not quite accurate enough in some of the things we do and we compound errors. On the flip side, we do lots of good things as well.

"We get ourselves in lots of good positions and towards the end of the game we look the stronger team finishing the game, but we’re just not quite accurate enough and then there is a couple of calls that don’t go our way and that unfortunately can be the game sometimes."