Belief won the Cup - Cullen

Belief was the key to Leinster's Heineken Cup win over Leicester, according to captain Leo Cullen and head coach Michael Cheika.

The Irish province became European champions for the first time after a thrilling 19-16 victory at Murrayfield. Despite enjoying the better of the game, Leinster fell 16-9 behind shortly after half-time.

But a superb score from Jamie Heaslip and a nerveless 40-metre penalty from the excellent Johnny Sexton turned the contest on its head. "I suppose just hanging in there, showing a bit of belief," said flanker Cullen, when asked what won the game for his side.

He added: "The period when we were down to 14 men was pretty costly. They came at us pretty strongly.

"We went seven points down and just to hang in there was pretty vital.

"I think the belief was always there that we could win the game."

Cheika added: "I just think we believed in ourselves to come back.

"We played quite well, I thought, in the first part of the game. When we went behind, we just started dropping off a few tackles in close.

"It got to seven behind and they started cranking up their machine, they started counter-rucking us, they were taking it hard at the line and really started to try and dominate us.

"We were able to stay in there and come back."