Leinster head coach Leo Cullen says he has no doubt that Leinster's day will come, as they fell to another agonising Heineken Champions Cup final defeat on Saturday.
For the third season in a row, the four-time champions came unstuck against Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle, losing 27-26 in arguably the greatest final of the competition's 28-year history.
To amplify the Leinster heartbreak, they gave up a 17-0 lead having scored three tries in the first 11 minutes, and were still 23-7 in front approaching half time.
Having won four titles between 2009 and 2018, the province have now lost in each of their last three final appearances.
But Cullen says their belief will not waver, despite back-to-back trophyless seasons.
"Yes, absolutely," he said when asked if his confidence is as strong as ever.
"The quality of people, that's the biggest piece for me and there’s some bloody good young players coming through as well, and we need to do everything we can to support them. But I’d have a lot of confidence.
"Like, the experience guys get. Like Garry [Ringrose] beside me here, the experience makes you stronger, it’ll make you stronger over time. There’s other guys within the team as well, you know, young guys, still in their 20s that are just accumulating that experience all the time.
"I understand how hard it is, making sure you have that constant focus in terms of the habits we deliver day to day and when you get to this big stage that you’re able to nail those opportunities.
"But it’s hard. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s not like you just turn up and someone’s going to hand it to you. It’s going to be hard but that’s the challenge isn’t it, putting yourself in that situation again.
"But it’s not easy. It’s going to be a challenge but I think our guys, it’s a really good crop of players there, they just keep having to believe in themselves.
"The game is multi-faceted, there's a physical component, there’s technical, tactical, and then there’s the mental side of the game as well so yeah, it’s making sure you’re working on all of the parts of our game."
Ringrose, who filled in as captain when James Ryan departed with a head injury after 30 minutes, echoed his coach's words after the game.
And the centre (below) says their kicking struggles were a major factor in welcoming the La Rochelle pressure onto them.
"Maybe how we exited, a couple of turnovers where lads are on the ball, pulling it up and on another day it could have been a penalty and you can relieve pressure that way," he said.
"But we struggled just to relieve pressure and then we got our opportunity to try and score a try at the end and didn't take it. So it was tough because were taking pressure and we did well at times to relieve it a bit but it was just that last bit and fine margins in a couple of instances. Yeah, we didn’t quite nail it or it went against us.
"It came down to a point at the end of the day and maybe if one or two moments had gone differently, a different result and you look at the game through a different lens but unfortunately that’s not the case."
Cullen admitted his side missed Ryan's presence after his first half head injury. The second row accidentally collided with the leg of La Rochelle prop Reda Wardi as he completed a tackle on Will Skelton.
"James, he was having a great game. It's just an unfortunate incident. He’s making a tackle and someone else runs by him and he gets a glancing blow.
"In terms of the way the protocols operate you do the right thing by the players. It’s a loss but you’ve just got to be able to deal with the losses in a game. That’s why it’s so hard, consistently to win these tournaments because you need lots of things to go your way.
"It wasn’t quite to be today, unfortunately."
