Review: RaboDirect PRO12 regular season

Last season saw them claim their first title in five years when they defeated Ulster 24-18, and an unbeaten run in the first three months of 2014 helped them on their way to a fifth successive home play-off this time around.

It was an impressive year for head coach Matt O'Connor in his first season in charge and the team will look to wave goodbye to retiring legends Brian O'Driscoll and Leo Cullen in style with a semi-final against Ulster next up.

"The closer you get to the end, the harder those losses get because you realise you are running out of chances, ­particularly in those big games," said O'Driscoll.

"One thing is that when you get into a winning culture, it does make you selfish for more and more.

"You are never satisfied, you always want more and want to win every trophy you are involved in."

Leinster did not claim the most victories of the regular RaboDirect PRO12 season however, with that honour instead going to second-placed Glasgow Warriors.

Much of that owed to an impressive end-of-season run in which saw Warriors win their last eight RaboDirect PRO 12 victories - their best ever sequence in the history of the tournament - to secure a first ever home semi final against Munster.

They are no strangers to the play-offs but having finished second bottom just three years ago, forwards coach Shade Munro is in awe of their progress over the last decade.

"To get our fourth semi-final in five years is a massive achievement from where we used to be ten seasons ago," he said.

"A lot of people are coming back with the success of Glasgow. There's a real buzz about the place from that point of view."

Munster may have finished 12 points off top in third, but it was still an impressive season for the Irish side, as Rob Penney picked up the RaboDirect PRO12 Coach of the Year award, with JJ Hanrahan taking the Rhino Golden Boot prize.

Last season's beaten finalists Ulster completed the play-off places, rounding off their regular season with a first season's double over Irish rivals Munster since 2008/2009.

The league's top scorers went to Ospreys, who racked up 571 points over the season en route to finishing as the top Welsh region.

They could also lay claim to having the RaboDirect PRO12 Players' Player of the Year among their ranks in the form of fly-half Dan Biggar, who finished as top scorer with 219 points.

While the next two places went the way of Scarlets, unbeaten at home in 2014, and Cardiff Blues in seventh, with number eight Robin Copeland capping a fine season by making the RaboDirect PRO Dream Team.

Alan Solomons' first season in charge at Edinburgh produced an eighth-place finish, with a standout result being their 11-6 win over Leinster in December - one of just four suffered by the reigning champions.

Newport Gwent Dragons rounded off the Welsh teams in ninth in director of rugby Lyn Jones' debut season with the region, level on points with Connacht despite twice falling to defeat to the Irish side.

While the remaining two places saw an intriguing battle between the two Italian teams Benetton Treviso and Zebre.

It proved to be a milestone season for Zebre who claimed their first ever RaboDirect PRO12 victory in round three against Cardiff Blues before recording back-to-back victories in their penultimate two games against Edinburgh and Ospreys.

But Treviso claimed a losing bonus point in their final game of the season against Dragons to sneak into 11th spot by a single point, booking their place in the European Rugby Champions Cup in the process.

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