And Cheika, who takes over at Top 14 side Stade Francais next season, offered no excuses for his team’s defeat.

He said: “I think we're just disappointed that we didn't play well enough for a final.

“That was the key thing. In these games, you have to take your opportunities. We had enough opportunities to build some pressure on the opposition that we didn't take.

“We eased that pressure tap off the opposition and they took advantage and took their chances. That was the difference.

“There's no excuses. Two teams went out there; the Ospreys played better than us and they deserved to win.

“We've become a team that can say, 'we played well' or 'we didn't play well' - we take it on the chin and try and get better and we can't do that in a final when the next time comes."

“A lot of our mistakes were in the offload and that probably wasn't the strategy. Maybe guys were think about promoting the ball so we could get a score in a final and put the other team under pressure when maybe we just needed to be a bit more secure in driving the ball up.

"We left a few too many loose ends for this level of football - that's the honest truth of the matter.”