A light-hearted moment in the press conference room at the San Mames in Bilbao yesterday.
"Yeah, he was my maths teacher," said Leinster's Dan Sheehan when the topic of Noel McNamara, formerly employed by Clongowes Wood College and current Union Bordeaux-Begles attack coach, came up.
"Were you good at maths?" enquired head coach Leo Cullen, seated beside Sheehan.
"No, I got kicked out of class," replied the Ireland hooker.
Come 5pm on Saturday evening, there'll either be a few dozen Irish men strolling across the pitch in Bilbao wearing broader smiles or else there'll be just one.
It will be of little consolation to most Irish rugby fans if it's McNamara who's waving to the victorious UBB fans for the second year running.
The 44-year-old has had an unlikely journey to the south of France and into one of the top coaching jobs in world rugby.
"I am very much an accidental rugby coach," McNamara, who grew up on a small farm, told the Irish Examiner back in 2022.
"Soccer was my first love growing up, but a confluence of events saw me eventually get my first job out of university working at Clongowes Wood College as a PE and Maths teacher, and one of the roles was coaching the Under-13 rugby team."
Highly regarded from his time at Glenstal Abbey School and Clongowes, McNamara was head coach of the Ireland U20s team between 2018 and 2020 and oversaw a Grand Slam campaign in 2019.
There he worked with Leinster players Harry Byrne, Thomas Clarkson, Scott Penny and Joe McCarthy.
Early in that period he was sent on a three-month coaching placement to New Zealand with Mitre10 Cup side North Harbour.
There were also assignments with the Leinster Schools and underage teams and UCD in the AIL.
He moved on to the Leinster academy as manager before moving up a rung on the coaching ladder when he chose the less worn path to South Africa with the Sharks in 2021.
Pandemic restrictions were still in place, while there was a spell of political unrest in Durban around the same time when he upped sticks, his family following later.
After gaining valuable experience in the URC, and crucially working alongside current UBB director of rugby Yannick Bru, who was there as a contact coach with the Sharks, McNamara was soon on the move to France and the ambitious Bordeaux-Begles.
As attack coach of the Investec Champions Cup holders, the Clare man gets to play with all the best toys in the box.
This season alone, with France flyer Louis Bielle-Biarrey top-scoring with eight tries in the competition, the team is averaging 43.6 points per European game, the best in the tournament.
Full-back Salesi Rayasi is just one behind try behind Bielle-Biarrey with seven.
They are all fed by Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert, who alone has beaten 34 defenders in the tournament, while the team tally tops out at 240. Yoram Moefana and Damian Penaud are in the centre as if more star dust was required.
One of the men who works the space to get the back on the front foot is Australia-born lock Adam Coleman.
"I think it's proven in results, how we’ve been attacking, [in] how Noel’s influenced the team with the attack structures that we have," says the 34-year-old Tonga international.
"He lets the boys play, but within a structure.
"He leads the attack very well. He’s a great coach, a great person to be around and have around the club.
"Obviously, him being from Ireland, he kind of has an idea of how they’ll play, but the focus this week has been on us."
Under Jacques Nienaber, Leinster have adopted a 'defence is the best form of attack' mindset with Ireland centre Garry Ringrose the spearhead of that approach.
"He is an exceptional coach," says the 31-year-old, who will play in his fifth final stretching back to the 2018 success against Racing 92 in Bilbao.
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"He was in charge of some of the Leinster and Ireland age grade stuff that I just missed out on, but I got to work or rub shoulders with him more closely then once I came in the building here in UCD.
"Then also from being close with the guys that were specifically under him and coached by him, understanding what made him tick and the value he was provided to them."
"He definitely had a really big impact on the players he dealt with here at Leinster and it comes as no surprise he's having success with Bordeaux and getting the most out of the whole team, but certainly the backs."
McNamara had been linked with a Munster move when they were working on their coaching ticket for next season but he is clearly loving life in France, recently signing an extension with the south west club that will run until 2029.
After twice coming up short in the quest for the Bouclier de Brennus, beaten in the finals by Toulouse, there's a clear Holy Grail for UBB, while adding a second Champions Cup success to the CV would raise the affable Munster man's stock even further.
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