Saturday 24 January 2015 22:08, UK
Director of rugby Richard Cockerill was frustrated with Leicester Tigers' performance after a 26-7 defeat at Ulster ended their chances of making the European Rugby Champions Cup quarter-finals.
Darren Cave scored a hat-trick of tries as Ulster ensured they escaped finishing bottom of Pool Three, with the bonus point score coming from Craig Gilroy and Ruan Pienaar adding three conversions.
Physically they were very good and we weren't good enough on the night and the better side won.
The Tigers could only manage a single converted try from Adam Thompstone in response when they needed to not only win the game but come away with a bonus point to keep their European hopes alive.
"There were no complaints, they scored four tries to our one," said Cockerill. "They were very good, we weren't as good as we could have been but they didn't let us.
"You come and you have to play and they know you have to play and we were outplayed.
"Physically they were very good and we weren't good enough on the night and the better side won."
Trailing 26-0 nine minutes into the second half, the Tigers coach did at least give his side some credit for hitting back with their try but it was all a case of too little too late.
"At least we got a little bit of spirit back and we created a few opportunities," he added.
"But you can't concede so poorly and that wasn't acceptable.
"Fair play to them and not good enough for us."
That's my first hat-trick for Ulster but I didn't have to do a lot for them. But I'm not worrying about that. We scored four tries and we probably only had five opportunities so we didn't leave a lot out there which is something.
Cave was delighted with the way that Ulster bounced back from conceding a record score in the 60-22 reverse at Toulon last week.
He said: "We took a lot of positives from our defensive performance against Toulon and brought it to this.
"We said during the week that any team can get up for a massive game but can we get up when you're playing for just your shirt and your crowd and I think that we did that massively.
"That's my first hat-trick for Ulster but I didn't have to do a lot for them. But I'm not worrying about that. We scored four tries and we probably only had five opportunities so we didn't leave a lot out there which is something."
He added: "Their big runners struggled to get into the game and I thought that we dealt with them pretty well.
"We made it very hard for them to score and at the end we were down to 13 and then 14 men and they were in our 22 but kicking the ball away because they had nowhere to go.
"I think we've now got a nice bit of momentum so we'll take stock from our break."
