Biarritz centre Ayoola Erinle says he and his team-mates were disappointed to leave Kingsholm empty-handed on Saturday even though their place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals is now secure.
The Basque outfit were comfortably beaten 23-8 by Gloucester but cannot now be caught at the top of Pool 2 regardless of next weekend's result against Glasgow.
The absence of the French international trio of Fabien Barcella, Dimitri Yachvili and Damien Traille undoubtedly weakened the Biarritz line up prior to what was always likely to be a difficult challenge at a daunting venue, but Erinle admits that the squad still expected to perform better in their Round 5 encounter.
"We still came here looking for a win," said Erinle, who featured for Leicester in last season's Heineken Cup Final at Murrayfield.
"People get injured and you just have to adapt to that. We've still got a pretty good squad.
"Obviously a couple of the big guys were missing this weekend which hampered us a little bit but it's always going to be difficult coming down to play at Kingsholm. With the Shed behind you it's always difficult, even with a full-strength team out.
"We played much better in the last 20 minutes - it's just a shame we couldn't have started like that and maybe have got a different result."
Erinle, who made his England debut in November and has appeared at Kingsholm for London Wasps as well as Leicester, says there were mixed emotions in the changing rooms after the game.
And while defeat was hard to stomach, Erinle claims his side are now determined to bounce back against Glasgow ahead of a first quarter final since 2007.
"It's not nice to lose and to take nothing out of the game," added Erinle.
"But tomorrow's a new day, we're still in the competition and we're grateful for that.
"It is a nice position to be in (qualifying for the knock-out stages) but, with today's result, a few people will be hurting so we will want to put it right against Glasgow next week and secure a win."
