Leinster stormed past Glasgow Warriors, attempting to become the first Scottish side to win the title, in the final scoring four tries in a 34-12 victory at the RDS in Dublin.
The Warriors were the only team able to break the Irish monopoly on the top four while Ospreys and Scarlets beat Cardiff Blues to the European Champions Cup spots by rounding off the top six.
Elsewhere, Pat Lam guided Connacht to a tenth place finish in his first season as coach and Lyn Jones came in as director of rugby for Newport Gwent Dragons with former Wales captain Kingsley Jones as his assistant.
Early leaders
Glasgow Warriors set the early pace with a quartet of wins in September. A last-gasp try from James Eddie ensured a 13-12 win at Ulster to go alongside victories over Cardiff Blues, reigning champions Leinster and Zebre.
The Warriors weren't defeated until they welcomed Munster to Scotstoun in late October while Munster bounced back from a shock 29-19 loss against Treviso with eight straight wins.
Leinster had suffered early season defeats to title rivals Glasgow and Munster before going through November unbeaten.
As the New Year blossomed, Matt O'Connor's side continued to look strong with a seven-game unbeaten run through January, February and March including a narrow four-point win over Munster at the Aviva Stadium.
Leinster beat Glasgow 28-25 on March 1 but that would be the Warriors' last defeat of the season until the two sides met again in the final.
The run-in
Glasgow Warriors raced to a home semi-final with eight consecutive victories after that narrow Leinster loss. They earned narrow wins over Scarlets and Ospreys and concluding with a 54-0, eight-try win over Zebre.
But they were unable to overhaul Leinster who finished the regular season at the top of the league with victories over Treviso, Ulster and Edinburgh.
Ulster, having already secured fourth spot, secured a morale boosting 19-17 win over Munster ahead of their trip to Leinster in the first semi-final.
The Ospreys finished fifth for the second consecutive season after a 30-27 defeat to Zebre in the penultimate round of the season.
At the bottom of the table, Treviso needed to better the result of Zebre going into the final day to qualify for the following season's European Champions Cup and did so with a losing bonus point against Newport Gwent Dragons.
The play-offs
In a bruising encounter at Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow edged out Munster in the first of the two semi-finals by a single point.
Damien Varley's try had given the Irish province an early lead but they were pegged back by Finn Russell whose three penalties gave the Warriors the half-time lead.
Gordon Reid's try after the break extended the lead and despite a Sean Dougall try and an Ian Keatley penalty, Glasgow held on to progress at their fourth attempt to reach the final.
The Warriors would face Leinster in the showpiece event after a second-half comeback helped them to a 13-9 victory over Irish rivals Ulster.
The season's second highest point scorer, Paddy Jackson, kicked two first-half penalties in the first half to give his side a 6-0 lead at the break.
And that advantage was stretched to nine before Jimmy Gopperth managed to get Leinster on the board with two penalties of their own.
The game's decisive moment came eight minutes from time when Ian Madigan burst through the tiring Ulster defence to give Leinster the lead for the first time, an advantage they never surrendered.
The final was billed as a farewell to Brian O'Driscoll but the Irish legend limped off early to huge applause from both sets of fans.
The game itself was an entertaining affair as Leinster cut loose with four tries, including a double for Zane Kirchner and scores for Shane Jennings and Gordon D'Arcy.
All Glasgow's points came from the boot of fly-half Finn Russell on a disappointing day for the Scottish side but in 12 months' time it would be a different story.
Top Scorers:
Despite Ireland's strong grip on the top four, it was the Welsh who dominated at the top of the leading scorers tables.
Scarlets' Gareth Davies was top try-scorer for the season with ten, two more than the Ospreys pair of Ashley Beck and Jeff Hassler could manage. Glasgow's Nikola Matawalu and Leinster's Noel Reid both scored seven tries.
In the point scoring stakes, it was another Welshman, Dan Biggar who topped the end of season charts with 219 points. His nearest challenger was Ulster's Paddy Jackson (183) with Dragons' Jason Tovey (176) and Jimmy Gopperth (170) rounding off the top four.
Biggar's kicking success earned him the players' player of the season award as well as the number ten jersey in the team of the year.
Glasgow's Jonny Gray was named young player of the year and Munster's Rob Penney was coach of the season.
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