Richard Cockerill had no excuses after watching his Leicester side take a 41-7 hammering at Ulster.
Tigers boss pays tribute to Ulster after Heineken Cup thrashing
Richard Cockerill had no excuses after watching his Leicester side take a 41-7 hammering at Ulster that more or less ends their Heineken Cup campaign.
A big win in their last match against Aironi is their only hope but even then it is likely to be too late with Pool 4 rivals Clermont still to face the Italian minnows on Saturday.
And the Tigers boss admitted defeat after Ulster ran riot at Ravenhill with a four-try bonus-point win.
"We are out. We will be third in our group. We are done," he confirmed.
Leicester were without injured England trio Toby Flood, Manu Tuilagi and Louis Deacon, a fact not lost on Cockerill.
Difficult
"It shows in European competitions with the English sides having a limit on what they can spend that if you have key guys missing, then it is going to very difficult for you," he added.
"We've got some key guys missing, but that is not an excuse and I don't want to use it as an excuse. We should have played better tonight.
"They (Ulster) played very well, and you have to take your hat off to them, shake their hands and say 'well done'.
"We struggled to get a foothold in the game. They controlled the field position, took their chances and built the score. There wasn't a part of the game where we had dominance.
"You don't want to be conceding 40 points. They are a good side, and we didn't cope with it. We never got on the front foot enough, and when we did, they worked very hard on the ball and we couldn't cope with their intensity.
"We needed to come here and get a result, and we thought we could do that. The side we had out tonight was good enough to put up a better show than that."
Outstanding
Ulster's South African skipper Johann Muller was proud of the way his players adapted to the big-match atmosphere.
"That was definitely one of our best performances in terms of taking our chances and the passion we showed," he said.
"Ravenhill is always a good place for us to play, and the atmosphere tonight was outstanding. The boys delivered a great performance.
"We said at half-time that the bonus point was on, and it was about being patient. We knew it might take 81 or 82 minutes, and the boys never stopped.
"But it doesn't mean anything unless we get some points in Clermont. We have to make sure we do what we have to do."
And Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin added: "We have a pack of forwards that is starting to be the envy of any team in Europe. The scrummaging and work around the pitch tonight was superb."
