The only team in the previous 16 season’s to be able to hang on to the Heineken Cup was Martin Johnson’s Leicester side of 2002. Now Leo Cullen’s men have done it three times in four years and the Leinster skipper became the first man to lift the Heineken Cup three times.

Their amazing effort in the first all-Irish final also allowed them to break a number of Heineken Cup Final records. Their 42 points overtook the 34 scored by Leicester in their 2001 win over Stade Francais Paris , their five tries beat Brive’s four in the 1997 final and their 28 point winning margin eclipsed Brive’s 19 against Leicester.

Sean O’Brien was named as the Heineken Man of the match and it was the fifth time in seven years an Irish team had won the title.

The opening exchanges were dominated by a pumped up Leinster side that managed to keep the ball for 82% of the first eight minutes. They forced the champions onto the back foot and tested their defence at every occasion.

There were half-breaks, big collisions, but only three points from the ever reliable boot of Ruan Piennar. The Springbok scrum half opened the scoring with his penalty, but Ulster had to wait until the final kick of the first half to score again,

Once they got to the pace of the game, and began to win some possession, they began to weave their magic and two tries flowed to give them a 14-6 interval lead. The first try came after Steffan Terblanche had made a crucial error in kicking directly the touch out of his 22.

Leinster didn’t control the line-out, but won the ball back and created a chance for reigning ERC European Player of the Year Sean O’Brien to barge his way over for the opening try. Johnny Sexton added the extras and also converted the second try by prop Cian Healy.

This time O’Brien turned supplier as he took a clever inside pass from Brian O’Driscoll before tearing up the middle. He was eventually stopped five metres sort, but the ball was recycled and Healy was the first receiver and barged his way over.

Those two tries gave Leinster the upper hand on the scoreboard and the first score after the break was always going to be vital. It came in unusual circumstances as Ulster once again gave away huge territory with a silly error from their young outside half Paddy Jackson.

Convinced Stephen Ferris hadn’t taken the ball back into his 22 he hammered the ball into touch only to find he had given Leinster a line-out some 20 metres out from the Ulster line. Leinster threw to the tail, Kevin McLaughlin rose high and the drive became unstoppable.

That was until Andrew Trimble dived into the middle of the driving maul and brought it to ground two metres short. Welsh referee Nigel Owens saw it clearly and ran straight to the posts to indicate a penalty try.

Sexton added a third conversion and suddenly there was real daylight between the sides at 21-6. Pienaar landed a third penalty three minutes later, but Sexton replied and the only time the gap closed significantly was when Dan Tuohy crossed in the right corner for Ulster’s only try on the hour.

Pienaar couldn’t convert, but at 24-14 there was half a chance for Ulster. But instead of crumbling under the pressure, Leinster rose to the threat and finished with a flourish as they scored tries through front row replacements Heinke van der Merwe and Sean Cronin.

Sexton added two more penalties to end with a match tally of 15 points and Fergus McFadden knocked over the final conversion of Cronin’s try to bring the curtain down on a record breaking performance by the champions.