Nevertheless, with Connacht losing to Treviso and having to face the in-form Glasgow Warriors in their final regular season Guinness PRO12 encounter this week, in all likelihood a win for Leinster this weekend would see them into a home semi-final.
But while Sexton admits silverware would help make up for a frustrating campaign, he is desperate for Leinster to dig deeper to find the solution to their problems.
"It's not the first time this season we've had a defeat like the one the Ulster which is probably the most disappointing thing," he said.
"When you come off the back of a defeat like that, it hurts and you've got to quickly put things right and that's what we're going to try this week, but if we go and produce a great performance this week it doesn't fix everything.
"There's plenty of stuff that can't be fixed over a week, can't be fixed over a few weeks - things that need a long time to fix so we know that and we're working towards that.
"I haven't been here for the last two years so I can only speak about this season and the time before, but I spoke last week about trying to get back to the level we were at and I still think we can get there - but we're a long way off.
"We're desperate to win another trophy but we know that we're nowhere near where we need to be if we want to get back to the top of Europe and consistently be the best side in the PRO12."
Leinster will round off their regular season at home to Treviso, who know that another victory would guarantee them Champions Cup rugby next season, and Sexton knows they will be no pushovers on Saturday.
He said: "Now it's cup rugby and we've got to win against Treviso and we've got a chance of a home semi-final, and that's where we wanted to be at the start of the season.
"Performance wise it hasn't been good enough yet but we have to turn it around pretty quick."
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