Stuart Hogg looked back on Glasgow’s latest near-miss and admitted the manner of the Dublin defeat was “brutal”.
The full-back had shown why he will be on the Lions flight to Australia with another brilliant performance but his efforts weren’t enough to propel the Warriors into the Pro12 Final against Ulster.
Heartbroken Hoggy declared: “We are totally gutted but skipper Ally Kellock told us we should be proud of how we played and what we have achieved this season.
“It was a brutal ending. The commitment was second to none and we did not deserve that result. But a lot of guys have put their hands up in terms of being competitive at this level and we will get better.”
It was Glasgow’s third semi-final exit in four years and Hogg went so close to taking the tie into extra time.
Sub Mark Bennett had dashed in for a try four minutes from time, but big Stu watched in agony as his conversion was blown wide by the gusty wind.
Coach Gregor Townsend added: “We are growing as a team and we will now look to the future We went very close to causing a massive upset and we did play the better rugby. We were close, but not close enough. The bottom line is that better team are the one that scores more points.
“Leinster just had a bit more experience, they were smart around the breakdown and they got penalties there. The team have all improved from last year.
“They like playing at tempo, you can see the passing skills, the evasion but we’re in the same position we were last year and we know we have to be better to get into a final.
“I think we need some more patience. The Bennett try was exactly what we need to do in the opposition 22, but we need to balance the risk between offloading and keeping the ball.”
An early Jonny Sexton penalty had sparked the Warriors into attacking action and they created a trademark opportunist try for scrum-half Niko Matawalu, goaled by Hogg.
Glasgow then went within a whisker of bagging another crucial score as Ryan Grant ploughed through but the video judge ruled Rob Kearney had stopped him grounding the ball.
They maintained the momentum and earned a penalty chance for a line-out collapse. Hogg calmly stroked it over from an awkward angle but it was Leinster’s turn to hit back with a Jamie Heaslip score.
There was a further triple setback for the Warriors 10 minutes before the break.
Matawalu was harshly yellow-carded for obstructive offside, enabling Sexton to add three points to the home tally.
Then the influential Josh Strauss was led off with a head problem.
The error count of both sides began to mount as play became more frantic and impatient going into the last quarter.
Sexton slotted two penalties but Glasgow refused to buckle.