As earthquake-inducing dust settles over two brutally unequal matches, the satisfaction of their respective passage to the final will combine with the feelings of discomfort at how they got there.
It seems fitting that for these two sides, who share so much European history, there were such strong similarities in how each ultimately overcame the penultimate hurdle.
Initially the overwhelming dominance of a first act, and a star performer in nine wallowing in the spotlight.
Based on their first-half display, no one could hold the same sporting supremacy as Leinster and Toulouse, apart from each other; The neutral sides wanted to take their time to accelerate towards a drool-worthy finale.
Until the save recently briefly flirted with two English sides who had spent most of the first half in the gutter looking at the stars.
While some famous characters bucked their lines and did not speak out for repression, weaknesses in the arenas of Croke Park and Le Stadium warned.
Challengers looked for weakness; champions ultimately won by revisiting core strengths.
Enough to celebrate, much more to evaluate.
Leo Cullen, Caelan Doris and Jamison Gibson-Park speak after Leinster's 20-17 Champions Cup semi-final win over Northampton
“I felt like we wanted to manage more than play. And we honestly don't know. This is a small lesson for the future.”
Both winning coaches could have said these words; they are derived from Toulouse boss Ugo Mola.
A new script awaits these formidable sports actors in the finale; the fluffy lines of the weekend committed to memory.
Leinster are running for five against the team that already has five; Leinster without a title since 2018, but knowing that they emphatically had the number of Toulouse in the last two semi-finals, as well as in 2019.
“We are one match away from lifting a trophy!” says Antoine Dupont, unstoppable again as he takes a break from his Olympic goals.
“This is why we all work every day. This season, and for several years in fact, this has been our goal.
“We know it is extremely difficult to get there and the last step is certainly the most difficult.
“It will be against an opponent we know very well and who wants to win as much as we do. It is twice that Leinster have lost in the final.
“It will be a special context for which we have to prepare. We know them very well, they know us very well. It is up to us to understand it as best we can to emerge victorious.
“We obviously suspected that Leinster, knowing the qualities of this team and its appetite for this competition, would end up in this place. But from our side we had to focus on ourselves.
“We were well aware of the internal targets and the team put themselves in the best position to reach the semi-finals. We knew from experience that it was very important to reach the end.
“Whoever the opponent is, there is still a final to be played. At the end of this meeting, one will be happy and one will be disappointed. The will is the same on both sides.
“The Leinster players have beaten us twice in the semi-finals in the last two years, but they have reached the final twice without winning it. So I don't know who is more unhappy in the story.”
We will know the answer soon.
Both Ugo Mola and Leo Cullen will analyze whether the sum of all their parts really amounts to a 23-win championship after their faltering finals.
Mola flatteringly hints that any change on his side could be prompted by the Irish opposition, who certainly cannot unfold the exact same 23 again.
“I hope we get the chance to prove again that it is in any case a very good group, perhaps with a different composition,” smiled Mola. “We all know that everyone wants to start games, especially a Champions Cup final. We will have to make choices, explain them and adopt this strategy.
“Across from us, in Leinster, we will have a coach who is a master of selection strategy.
“(Jacques) Nienaber tried different teams in each of his compositions with South Africa during the World Cup, from the quarter to the final. Maybe we draw inspiration from the best.”
Dupont may have shone – as Jamison Gibson-Park did for Leinster – but François Cros was the outstanding performer on Sunday.
His 20 tackles (six of which were dominant) and 12 carries typified the winger's ferocious performance, but may also contain clues to his side's vulnerabilities in the second half.
“It's great,” he said after the five-time champions booked their passage in London.
“It's just a shame that we had this slump at the start of the second half, which almost put us in doubt, but which is still promising for the future because we will have to learn lessons from it.
“If we can't complete 80 full minutes in the final, it won't be possible to win it.
'I don't know, maybe we were too far ahead and relaxed a bit. We told ourselves to keep playing and in the end we overplayed a little bit.”