Biarritz fullback Nicolas Brusque knows his team are unlikely to qualify for the final eight of the Heineken Cup and admitted his side were overwhelmed by Saracens at Vicarage Road.
Much fancied before the tournament kicked off, the French side have been found wanting in Pool 4, and suffered their biggest defeat in Europe to Saracens on Saturday. The 29 point loss eclipsed the 26 point defeats to Leinster in both the 2000 and 2003 campaigns.
They can now only reach 18 points, and since the introduction of bonus points no side has ever reached the Heineken Cup quarter-finals with just 18 points.
Brusque admitted the defeat has hurt his team. "We are really disappointed. Mentally and physically we seem to have lost it and been overwhelmed.
"Today is a failure, a big defeat for us and it's a reality check. We were forced to defend for long periods but were unable to hold out for the full 80 minutes.
"In the first half we managed to do very positive things but we must learn to show more confidence and try to keep playing when we are leading in the game and avoid withdrawing into ourselves and only focus on defence. Here we tried to defend but in the end we didn't stop tries to be scored and that's a pity."
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