Bath coach Mike Ford says his side do not want sympathy after Leinster loss

Mike Ford insists his Bath side do not want a ‘sympathy vote’ after exiting the European Champions Cup to Leinster at the quarter-final stage.

The English side put in a poor first-half performance and gave away a number of unnecessary penalties that proved decisive at the full-time whistle.

A late rally came up just short as Leinster prevailed 18-15 and Ford believes Bath only have themselves to blame for the defeat.

"Make no mistake, we don't want any sympathy vote here. We should have won that game today," he said.

"There is a lot of disappointment. The first-half performance, especially, we are a lot better than that. It is probably where we lost the game. We couldn't really control the ball and we gave away some penalties.”

The visitors scored two tries without reply but ultimately scores from George Ford and Stuart Hooper counted for little as Ian Madigan kicked six penalties for Leinster.

"We made quite a few line-breaks, but there is more than one way to win a game,” added Ford. “It is not just about scoring tries. They kicked their penalties and fair play to them.

"But we are so disappointed because we are a lot better than what we showed today. That last 10-15 minutes, I was pretty convinced we were going to win the game, but it's small margins."

While disappointed, Ford is convinced that the defeat can act as a catalyst for the club and his players for the rest of the season.

"At half-time, we talked about composure," he said. "We hadn't been able to build any pressure with ball in hand and there was also the discipline side of things. Madigan was pretty dead-eye today, which cost us.

"We put it together second half and I think this will make us stronger. We will look back at the end of the season at this game particularly and say this is where Bath became very strong.”