Leicester Tigers centre Dan Hipkiss insists the pain of losing last year' final will spur his side on throughout this season's Heineken Cup.
Hipkiss was part of a Tigers side that secured knockout wins against Bath and Cardiff Blues but fell to a narrow defeat to Leinster in Europe's showpiece event.
It was the second time that Hipkiss had been force to stand on the pitch and watch another set of players celebrate winning the continent's greatest prize and it is not an experience he wants to go through again.
"Losing last season's final was as gutting as you can get really on a rugby pitch," said Hipkiss, who played the full 80 minutes at Murrayfield against Brian O'Driscoll and co.
"I've lost some big finals; I've lost a World Cup Final, two Heineken Cup Finals, a Guinness Premiership Final and an EDF Energy final - maybe I'm doing something wrong!
"There is an incentive to go one further this year. I've played two Heineken Cup Finals now and lost them both. Guys like Geordan Murphy, Harry Ellis and Lewis Moody have all won the Heineken Cup but it's slipped away from the rest of us.
"We performed pretty well last year but we came up a little bit short in the final. We feel disappointed about losing the finals in 2007 and last year and we want to try and get back there and win it this time.
"It's easy to say that but it does give you a little bit of extra motivation."
Hipkiss may have won both the English league title and the Anglo-Welsh crown in his time with his one-and-only professional club, but he talks openly about his determination to be crowned a European Champion before his career comes to an end.
For everyone associated with the Welford Road giants, the Heineken Cup is the one that really matters, and Hipkiss is no different.
"I went to see the Heineken Cup Final in Cardiff against Munster in 2002 and I remember watching the one in Paris on TV a year earlier," explained the 27-year-old England international who made his Tigers debut immediately after the club's second European triumph.
"Geordie (Murphy) and the others don't bang on about it every day but you do want to try and win one before you finish - and I'm not getting any younger. I'm going to run out of chances some day so I've got to take one eventually.
"The Heineken Cup is the one that everyone wants to win, particularly the guys in this squad."
