Jack Conan says playing his part in a riveting Leinster-Munster derby was soothing but admitted the disappointment of Ireland's World Cup exit was something he would "never be over".
The 31-year-old back row, in his first club appearance of the season, was named player of the match as Leo Cullen's side edged out Munster on Saturday night at a near-full Aviva Stadium, winning a BKT URC thriller 21-16.
"It was great to be back playing, a joy to be here in front of a full house, back in blue, seems like years since I played a game for Leinster," said the Wicklow man, who recovered from a foot injury to feature against Scotland and New Zealand in France.
"I kind of had a disjointed last few months with injuries so to get a good 80 minutes under my belt was a real joy.
"I was chatting to Johnny [Sexton, former Ireland and Leinster captain] the other day and it's one of those things, you'll never be over the disappointment of it.
"We're lucky [at Leinster] in the sense that you get to lace up the boots a few weeks later.
"I had two weeks off and then I was back in, rehabbing stuff. You just want to get going again and you want to help the lads out. I always struggle watching lads playing, I want to be playing.
"That's been tough over the last two weeks. You want to be adding to the environment, you want to be out there in blue, playing with your mates. I was so eager to get back [I] cut the holiday short a few days.
"The only way to help put everything in the past is to get back playing and it definitely helped, getting the win in the Aviva, full house, it's class, it's great to be back."
Fourteen of Leinster's starting XV played at the World Cup, while five of Munster's match-day squad saw action in France, and Conan revealed what it was like to meet up in different circumstances.
"Myself and Tadhg Beirne sat on the bus every single day, every trip, and then you go from being really close and spending so much time together to trying to take each other's head off and whack each other," he said.
"But then you have a bit of a laugh at the bottom of the ruck, you know, there's never any nastiness.
"Me and Murr [Conor Murray], we were away together for that week in Dubai.
"It's strange but it's good to see them as well. It's great to see Craig [Casey] and Jack [Crowley] and Killer [Dave Kilcoyne] again.
"You have to park that for 80 minutes but afterwards you embrace and it's good to see them, and see how they are getting on. That's the joy of playing rugby in Ireland, you get to see some of your mates every few weeks."
On how he coped with the aftermath of an agonising 28-24 loss to the All Blacks, Conan, who started all three Lions Tests in 2021 against South Africa, said: "The first week at home was miserable, absolutely miserable.
"We came back, it was lashing rain, horrible. You go from being around the lads 24/7, having unbelievable craic to being back on a Monday and you wake up on Tuesday.
"My wife had gone to work and then you're all alone. You are by yourself and it's so strange to not be in that environment any more.
"The only way to fix it is get back among the lads and I'm lucky that so many lads live around and you are able to share that misery and pick it apart and spend time in each other's company.
"The only real fix is to get back into the environment, playing, back in blue and enjoying your work.
"The first week was brutally tough. Then we got away for a week to Dubai in the sun.
"A few of the lads were out there as well. It was nice to spend a bit of time with them again.
"It was tough at the start and then you kind of normalise with the standard of life back home, it helps sooth the pain a little bit."
Leinster overturned a 10-0 deficit to run out five-point winners thanks to tries from Jamison Gibson-Park, Dan Sheehan and Jordan Larmour, as well as three conversions from Ciarán Frawley.
"It was good, one of those open ones," was Conan's verdict. "We were fairly poor for large parts of the game, didn't click at times. Some of our shapes and realignment, getting set into attack wasn't good enough.
"We always know that any time we play Munster we get it really hard at the ruck. We weren't as accurate as we needed to be there, gave away a lot of silly penalties where we got marched back twice.
"It's not like us a lot, probably just frustrations flaring up there a little bit. Testament to the lads, stuck with it, played to the end. Munster are a quality side, they never give in."
Watch highlights of all the weekend's action on Against the Head, 8pm, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
