London Irish head coach Toby Booth has admitted his side didn't play well enough to come away with an opening day victory as the Exiles lost 20 v 19 at home to Edinburgh.
Booth's side were without a host of star players but slipped to defeat at Reading as Edinburgh claimed only their second away win in 24 games.
And looking ahead to next weekend's clash against Cardiff Blues, who won on the road in France on Friday night, Booth knows his side need to improve.
"I knew this would prove to be a topsy-turvy pool and this result certainly makes our lives in it more difficult," he said.
"But if you are going to get things wrong in a pool game, better in the first game than the last.
"We were pretty poor by our standards and we could not control the game the way we usually can. Take nothing away from Edinburgh who were better than us in that area.
"We do have a number of our more potent players missing at them moment, but I am not making an excuse, we didn't play well and will need to play a lot better in Cardiff on Friday night."