Emotional Exeter faced up to the end of an era after their Champions Cup semi-final turned into a painful last hurrah.
Chiefs had dared dream that a side about to be broken up could summon one final effort to bring down the might of La Rochelle. That players who had made history by turning one-time Devon minnows into kings of the continent could sign off with a second European crown in four years.
It didn’t work out at all that way at a seething Stade Matmut Atlantique, where the holders inflicted a seven-try hammering.
