Irish giants bemoan limp exits
Irish giants Munster and Ulster, with three titles between them, exited the European Cup competition in limp fashion.
Munster produced a desperately inaccurate effort before exiting the European Cup before the play-offs for only the second time in 17 years.
Head coach Anthony Foley accepted they made too many errors as they crashed to a 10-33 defeat at Saracens that leaves them on 10 points ahead of their home tie against Sale Sharks.
It was only the second time in 17 years that Munster will not feature in the last eight of the top tier tournament after their worst European defeat since 1996.
"We've got Sale next week at Thomond Park and it is important we put this defeat to bed in the week and turn up in front of our home fans and give them a performance that everyone can buy into," said Foley.
"We weren't allowed to play our usual game. Saracens came out and dominated the big areas – ball carrying, the ruck area and the scrums.
"We made a lot of errors, especially in our passing, and from that they got big moments in the game.
"Their tries came from mistakes, which is frustrating and hard to take. It kept us out of the game and we struggled to get momentum.
"We just had to dig in at the end there to make sure we didn't concede a fourth try.
"Injuries happen, but we don't delve into them as excuses. Saracens outplayed us today and we need to look at ourselves and see how we go forward and learn from this."
* Meanwhile Ulster No.8 Roger Wilson admits his side struggled to get to grips with a rampant Toulon side in record 22-60 European defeat.
The Irish province conceded a record equalling eight tries against the reigning European champions, including a hat-trick to England back row man Steffon Armitage, and a record 60 points.
Ulster did, however, manage four tries of their own.
Paddy Jackson, Jared Payne and Mike McComish (two) at lest gave Ulster fans something to smile about, but Wilson conceded that their defence was not up to scratch.
"When you look at the scoreboard it's very disappointing but I don't think that reflects the effort we put in for 80 minutes. Not many teams will go to Toulon and score four tries but the big negative for us was the defence," said Wilson.
"We tried to get in their faces as much as possible and it worked for a while but when they get up some momentum and get their off-load game working they are very difficult to stop.
"We spoke before the game about the fact that there was nothing to play for but we still wanted to go out and put our bodies on the line.
"The injuries in the first half were a big blow for us and we don't seem to have had much luck with that recently.
"We will look ahead to Leicester Tigers next week and we want to finish off the pool on a positive note."
Ulster complete their Pool Three campaign at home against Leicester Tigers this weekend.
Tigers need to pick up five points to try to earn a best runners-up spot.
