Leinster are Pro12 champions for 2013-14. In a fittingly absorbing finale, they produced one of their best performances of the season to defeat Glasgow, and eventually gloss the scoreline. It’s their seventh trophy in seven years, and continues a remarkable run of success. This year’s vintage may have paled beside Joe Schmidt’s 2011-12 worldbeaters, but they are the only province to finish with silverware. Winning is a great habit, and Leinster finished top of the league and then saw off two gallant challengers in the knockout stages. What more could you ask for?

At various points in the season, Ulster and Munster were hailed as heroes, teams whose moment had arrived; Leinster for the most part had to deal with brickbats, from their own disgruntled fans as much as anyone else. But for all that, it’s Leinster who finish the season as champions. You can guarantee that everyone associated with Munster and Ulster would trade all the press acclaim for the Pro12 trophy. Who will really remember Leinster’s struggle to put away Zebre and Edinburgh in the RDS when you can gorge your brain on the happy send-off for Leo Cullen and BOD instead?

They say in golf that there’s no room for a picture on the scorecard, and the phrase seems apt here. Leinster huffed and puffed through much of the season, and at times it looked like nothing so uncomplicated as a dropping of standards. Where was the ferocious and accurate clear-out work that provided Schmidt’s blue army with a steady supply of quick ball? It appeared to be missing in action. But look a little less emotionally at the picture and things are not so straightforward. It’s Munster fans who are often accused of being spoiled, but perhaps Leinster’s are now the ‘bold child’ that needs to keep itself in check. To demand both silverware and a certain panache speaks to a little too much self-entitlement, no?

We warned last season when Jonny Sexton went to Paris that replacing him would be no picnic and that it wouldn’t be as simple as throwing Maddog in and expecting everything to take up where it left off. Throw in a new coach, an ageing centre partnership, limited access to Luke Fitzgerald and an injured Sean O’Brien and it’s a lot of issues to absorb in a season. Amid the hallooing, there have been many positives, not least the development of Marty Moore, Rhys Ruddock and Jordi Murphy, while Sean Cronin turned in his best ever season.  Plus, they’ve won the league.  It gives Matt O’Connor room to breathe, and a solid platform off which to improve performances and mount a more serious challenge in Europe next season.

As for the game itself, well, once again the Pro12 final turned in a terrific match. The league gets its share of stick, but every single final going back to the Leinster-Ospreys game in 2010 has been hugely memorable. For Leinster it was a case of licking Glasgow’s plate clean before starting their own meal. Glasgow threw the kitchen sink at them but the defining moment was the sensational turnover-and-run-it-from-inside-your-own-tryline break which turned the game irrevocably. That was thrillingly old-school Leinster; not Schmidt’s Leinster, but the Leinster of Felipe Contepomi, Denis Hickie and, erm, Cameron Jowitt.

Glasgow and Gregor Townsend may live to rue the decision not to start their gamebreaking Fijians.  Away wins in the RDS, especially in big games, are hen’s-teeth rare, and Glasgow needed to bet the house on their unpredictable, put lethally explosive Fijian 8-9 axis. To do otherwise appeared to err on the side of conservative. Instead we were watching Chris Cusiter try to play the hits from his 2003 back catalogue. There seems to be a thesis that certain players are best unleashed off the bench where they can bring the most ‘impact’. It’s not entirely without logic, but surely the best players should be given the most minutes on the pitch in which to influence the game?

But what really killed Glasgow were Leinster’s first half tries – under Joe Schmidt they specialised in ruthlessly scoring tries when the opponent was on top, and we saw glimpses of that. Zane Kirchner has been peripheral all year, but with decent service and ruthless accuracy back in-scope, he looked lethal. Leinster went in at half-time 14-12 up despite being dominated – difference was they sniped tries with no field position yet Glasgow had loads of visits to Leinster’s 22, but it all went a bit Ulster and they couldn’t score. The catalyst for all this ruthlessness was, whisper it, BOD’s injury and the introduction of Ian Madigan at centre. He’s too small to have a career there, but his sumptuous passing and vision was to the fore on Saturday. The irony of it all, after the season that Leinster and Madigan have had.

And finally, what can be said about Leo Cullen and His BODness that hasn’t already been said? It was an anti-climactic, if weirdly fitting – it was always likely to end with him trudging from the field with an injury, given how he has played all his career – send off for The Great One, and in truth his limbs will probably thank him for not having to go through another 72 minutes of pounding. His body has been creaking badly more or less since the 2011 World Cup, but his genius and commitment never wavered. At the risk of getting all Robo-BOD, future generations will indeed ask if we actually saw BOD play in the flesh. Yes indeed, we’ll say. And Paul O’Connell too? Yes, absolutely. Sometimes even both at the same time. Wow! How come Ireland only won one grand slam in all those years? Err, time for bed now son.