As always, the time just before going home is a very happy time. But given this is the final time I’ll be going home, it’s tinged with sadness. I have officially said I will be leaving the club. After the defeat against Brive I convinced myself that I couldn’t leave on that, my work wasn’t finished and so on. Various people at the club encouraged this view and for a few days I agreed with them. But sense prevailed, I realised my heart wasn’t in it and having lived it for a year, it is time to move on.
The final whistle in that quarter-final left me distraught, totally wrecked. But it also served as the ultimate pressure release valve. It didn’t feel like it at the time – at the time it was the most painful defeat I’ve experienced, signalling the end as it did. But I also felt a huge amount of relief. I enjoy pressure just as much as the next stand-off but I feel I have been more aware of it this year. So I’m relieved in a way that it’s over. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed myself, it’s simply been a very long, challenging season – not just any rugby season. So I welcome the end, the arrival of a chilled summer with no weights sessions to go to, no kicking to improve (for a couple of weeks at least), no contact sessions, no buses, no commuting. I desperately would have preferred all this to arrive after the final on Sunday, but it was out of my control, and so be it.
The final will be between Brive and Clermont Auvergne. That’s very hard to take given the level we are in relation to both these teams. The other quarters and semis look like this... Note the margins by which Brive have reached the final by, 1 point in each of the final phase matches – this is a very tough competition to win.
Quarter-finals
Racing 12 – 13 Brive
Toulouse 6 – 9 Clermont
Grenoble 27 – 13 Pau
Bayonne 22 – 10 Montpellier
Semi-Finals
Bayonne 18 – 21 Clermont
Grenoble 15 – 16 Brive
Posts left to write:
The Final week
Scotland v France
Thank-yous
The Conclusion
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