Jonathan Davies: Coming home after the final was a tough reality to endure

Arriving home after losing the Champions Cup final was a tough reality to endure, says Sky Sports' Jonathan Davies.

Coming home at about 3am on Sunday morning I was in a bit of a daze. It’d been a long day for obvious reasons - we’d packed up after the game and pretty much headed for Clermont straight away. It was always going to be the case, even if we’d won. But walking through the front door with the final all behind me was a bit surreal. You focus on something for so long that it's hard to move on from it once it's gone.

I will admit that when I saw him chip that ball ahead I muttered something to myself, so when he ran straight through the defence, collected the ball on the bounce and cantered over untouched I was forced to apologise under my breath too.

People obviously realise how difficult it is to lose a game, they know we’re hurting when that final whistle blows, and they know we’re hurting when another team heads over to the podium to collect a trophy in front of us. But one thing that surprised me when I starting playing professionally was realising just how draining the whole process is, given that it’s something you’ve talked about for almost nine straight months.

After talking about winning that cup for nine months we ended up just six points short at Twickenham, and it's impossible not to replay the whole thing in your head to try and figure out how you could have changed that result.

Blue and Yellow

It meant a lot to us that we had such phenomenal support from the Clermont fans in the semi-final and final. To see a sea of Blue and Yellow in the middle of London was both impressive and encouraging for us when we ran out. They stuck around right until the end which was appreciated. We desperately wanted to repay that support with silverware on Saturday but fell short at the very last hurdle. It’s tough to take for us, and I’m sure it was for them too.

The game itself was one I felt we could have won. When Wes Fofana went over for that try in the first half I felt like we were in control of things. The middle portion of the game was where we lost it though, and credit to Toulon they used that time to take charge. We never made it back in, despite some superb individual efforts that kept us in the game. In the end it was too much for us to chase, even when we got right in it with Nick Abendanon’s try.

I get asked a lot about Nick by the UK media and Saturday was a good indication of why. That try he scored showed not only a frightening amount of vision and execution, but also the confidence to pull it off when the game was on the line.

I will admit that when I saw him chip that ball ahead I muttered something to myself, so when he ran straight through the defence, collected the ball on the bounce and cantered over untouched I was forced to apologise under my breath too.

Recognised

He’s a great talent of the game and outside of it he’s very level-headed individual. A great person to have in your team, and deservedly recognised as European Player of the Year. Will England pick him? That’s up to them. I know the benefits of having him in my team at Clermont, but that means I know the problems we would face as a Welsh outfit, so I'll leave them to decide!

Walking into practice on Monday morning it was clear to see what the whole thing meant to the guys; there was a very sombre atmosphere among the squad. I tucked myself away a bit on Sunday while I processed the game and coming in on Monday was not one of my favourite days at the office I must say.

Fortunately though, this season is a bit different in that the European final took place right at the beginning of May, which means that although it’s a bitter reality to endure, we are still right in the hunt for the Top 14 trophy. So that’s our focus.

We can’t change what happened last weekend, but we can control what happens this weekend. We have a very important game against Grenoble and then we are in the final part of the domestic season. We are backing ourselves to make it over the line in this one, and with the squad we have, I have no reason to doubt it.

Clearly we wanted to win both trophies this year, but just because we’ve lost out on one doesn’t mean that we care any less about the other. In fact we want it that much more.