Ulster captain Alan O'Connor felt apologies were in order when he gathered his beaten team-mates in the dressing room at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday night.
Heavy favourites coming in the BKT URC quarter-final, Dan McFarland’s men crashed out after a 15-10 loss to Connacht.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this.
The match-day programme paid tribute to 10 departing players, who will make their home elsewhere next season, and a signing and selfie session was arranged for the fans.
Rob Herring was equalling the all-time Ulster appearance record of 229, alongside Andrew Trimble and Darren Cave; Jacob Stockdale led the team out with his daughter in arm as he won his 100th provincial cap.
Never before beaten at home in a knockout game, Ulster, who finished second in the table behind Leinster, fully expected to be here next week.
But Connacht came to spoil the party and Duane Vermeulen, Sam Carter, Jordi Murphy, Craig Gilroy, Gareth Milasinovich, Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, Rory Sutherland, and a handful of other squad members, had to sign off and wave goodbye to the Ravenhill faithful off the back of a painful defeat.
O’Connor, whose Ulster side won just one of five Champions Cup matches this season, described the scene in the devastated changing room.
"I didn't want to speak about the rugby because I thought I'd cry, which is the way it is," said the Dubliner, who was making his 178th appearance for the Belfast-based club.
"I thanked all the guys who are leaving, all the guys retiring or moving on, the guys with World Cup aspirations, I just thanked them and wished them all the best.
"Our whole season was for this game. Every game you play is to get into the knock-out stages and we did enough to get into second.
"We knew what was at stake if we won. It's disappointing for everyone but it's more disappointing for guys who have that as their last game of rugby.
"That'd be a tough pill to swallow if that was me.
"I feel like we let them down, that's the way I feel. We all tried but we didn't win, so you feel like you let them down, which is disappointing because I don't want to be part of that.
"It's sport, it's the way it is, but it was an honour to play with those guys, it was an honour to captain them but we've left it on a down note."
Meanwhile, Connacht boss Andy Friend cautioned against harsh judgement of Ulster, who, under McFarland, have established themselves as the second best of the Irish provinces over the last few years.
Magnanimity in victory may be easy but Friend, whose side face DHL Stormers in the semi-final on Saturday, urged critics to take a wider view.
"I had a coffee with Dan this morning [the day of the game]," said the Australian.
"He said to me, 'oh, everybody is saying you’ve got a free shot and you jumped on that bandwagon.’
"I said: ‘Of course, I jumped on that bandwagon, mate, because I wanted to put that pressure on you’.
"But it is sort of a free shot but it’s not. Like, there’s enormous pressure on us too, ‘cos you don’t get to a quarter-final and be happy with that.’ We wanted to go to South Africa.
"But my other message to Dan was, ‘the disappointing thing with this game is if we lose, everyone was going to expect us to lose it. If you blokes lose the game you’ve had a bad season. And you haven’t had a bad season.’
"He’s a hell of a football coach, they’re a hell of a football team, but it’s probably going to be written that they’ve had a bad season.
"That’s just where we are as a sport at the moment. Every game, one coach is meant to be good and the other coach is meant to be a donkey. Well, that’s not reality.
"So, I feel for Dan, I feel for Ulster. They’re a really good rugby side. They’ve been incredible over the last few years.
"I thought our character was there, which we’ve been guilty of not having.
"We did come up here wanting to win that game. Yep, we said all the pressure was theirs but there was still internal pressure. We have pretty high standards ourselves.
"So, to come back to that win, I’m immensely proud."
Speaking after the game, former Ulster and Ireland wing Andrew Trimble suggested that the team needed the end of the season to turn a new page.
Second row O'Connor, 30, concluded: "We'll come together as a squad, a load of guys are moving on and a good few young guys have come through, [Harry] Sheridan, Dave McCann, Tom Stewart.
"They'll learn a lot from this year, hopefully bring what they have and more. Myself and some of the older guys, we just have to keep trying to improve ourselves. We'll take these experiences as well.
"At the end of the day, we're a very tight-knit group no matter who comes in or out. We'll digest it all, there's plenty of time to think about it."
