Thursday 2 April 2015 14:29, UK
Sky Sports' Jonathan Davies says Clermont's energy to play the Champions Cup quarter-final against Northampton can already be felt, but the side is keeping themselves in check until Saturday...
It was a tough pool to get through but we're here - the quarter-finals of Europe. In club rugby this is exactly where you want to be and as a player it’s no different. It's my first time being part of a squad contesting in a Champions Cup knock-out game so it's been an interesting week for me personally, but you can tell from looking around on the training pitch that I'm not the only one excited about this.
The game itself should be quite some spectacle. Not many teams in Europe have beaten us at home, and there’s a lot to be said about the familiarity of winning and the importance of that being part of a team's culture.
It breeds confidence within the group and it ends up being an advantage over and above the usual home advantage. Obviously reputation will only get us so far, but if teams arrive at the gates of the stadium knowing most other clubs have left without a win, it gives us an edge.
With that said you can't take anything for granted. A win starts with the preparation at the beginning of the week and this week there has been a huge focus. Not a difference in the way we've approached the game, but the intensity of the way guys are going about their business is visible.
Approach
Some of the guys look like they were ready to play the game yesterday, and that's something we will have to harness because there's no point getting the adrenaline pumping on a Tuesday when you're running onto the pitch four days later.
Northampton arrive with a very good team on the back of a big win over Wasps, so we will need to be switched on from now all the way until kick-off, but we also need to be level-headed in the way we approach it.
The way you approach the day of a game is a good example of how to approach the week. The kick-off for this Saturday's game is at 6.45pm over here. You don't want to spend the whole day leading up to it with your game mentality and adrenaline spiking all over the place - you'll wear yourself out and by the time you've run out onto the pitch you've played the game in your head four or five times.
Pressure
You have to treat it like a pressure valve where you're slowly releasing energy throughout the day and hit kick-off in a good place. Likewise in the week building up to it you have to prepare, but you can't give the best of yourself on the training pitch and not have anything left for the game. It's a tough balance, admittedly, and one you try get right each week.
As for the opposition themselves, Northampton’s reputation speaks for itself. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we will never underestimate an opponent, but it’s particularly difficult to underestimate a team when they’re the defending champions of England.
Their team is packed with internationals in the forwards and the backs, and there’s no real weakness in the way they play the game. Last week they beat Wasps by 22 points and though they played against 14 men for periods of it, they showed a lot of class in the way they executed opportunities.
I feel very fortunate that I’ve had a lot of weeks where I’ve written a piece and wanted to use the words ‘It doesn’t get much better than this’, and this week it applies once again. Representing a club that’s currently second in the Top 14 playing against the team that’s top of the Premiership, both looking for a place in the semi-finals of Europe... it really does get the blood pumping.
Let’s hope we can keep the blood pressure in check until Saturday evening!
Watch Clermont Auvergne v Northampton Saints live on Sky Sports 2 on Saturday from 5.15pm or with a Sky Sports Day Pass for £6.99
