Nick Abendanon admitted to feeling guilty after Clermont lost 24-18 to Toulon
Saturday 2 May 2015 21:02, UK
An emotional Nick Abendanon admitted to feeling guilty after Clermont lost 24-18 to Toulon in the Champions Cup final on Saturday.
Clermont led 11-3 midway through the first period after centre Wesley Fofana claimed an opportunist try and Camille Lopez booted two penalties in front of a 56,000 crowd.
However Abendanon’s decision not to kick the ball into touch at the end of the first half resulted in Mathieu Bastareaud scoring for Toulon, and despite a fine 63rd-minute try by Abendanon, Clermont's woeful record in major finals ultimately continued.
“It's hard to watch a team celebrate something that we desperately wanted to win,” admitted Abendanon
“Especially when I gifted them seven points by not kicking that ball out into touch. It is a bitter pill to swallow.
“These guys have worked so hard to get to this point but we have come up just short.
“There are no words but there are a lot of tears in the changing room. This means so much to this group of players who have been at this club for a lot longer than I have and played in more semi-finals and finals than I have so it's hard to put that sort of emotion into words - maybe guilt? I don't know.”
Bouncing back
Abendanon may have made a mistake but his cracking try in the second half brought Clermont right back into contention and the England hopeful said that despite the set-back he will continue to back himself.
"That is the sort of player I am – I like to try things, some of them may not come off but you can be sure that I will keep my head up and try them again because I back myself 100%.
“At the end of the day we scored that try and got back into the game – it was only at the final whistle that we thought we were out of it. We put some nice phases towards the end and almost broke that sea of red.”
Abendanon believes that the trophies will come for Clermont and that it was the small margins was to blame for their loss and had nothing to do with their mental strength.
“This is my first season here but I feel that this team will be lifting trophies; that is for certain. We have a great group of individuals in the squad. We came here with the mental belief that we could beat Toulon today.
“I am sure people will go on about our inability to get the job done but that is not how this group feels. That is finals rugby, it is on a knife-edge and mistakes can hurt you - that is what happened today.”
