Richard Cockerill said an accumulation of errors led to defeat against the Scarlets in south Wales on Saturday evening.
Tigers went to the Parc y Scarlets looking to build on their opening-round victory over Ulster with back-to-back fixtures against reigning European champions Toulon to come in December.
But, despite a positive start and an opening penalty from fly-half Owen Williams, it was the Scarlets who claimed the only two tries of the match in a 15-3 triumph as Tigers paid a high price for a number of errors.
“You cannot make that many errors in an important game and keep giving the opposition energy to play,” said director of rugby Cockerill.
“We kept knocking-on, we didn’t control position and we put pressure on ourselves by making mistakes. It wasn’t one thing that cost us, it was all the errors together.
“They were two pretty soft tries to concede – from an error in the back-field and from an interception – and our execution was poor. If you cannot hold on to the ball and you give points away, you lose the game and that is what happened.
“At half-time it was a five-point ball-game but in the second half we never got our composure back, which is disappointing.
“It is tough in this competition because you don’t get many chances. We’ve got Toulon back to back next, then Scarlets at home and Ulster away to come, and you probably need four wins to get out of this pool.”
Centre Anthony Allen came through 50 minutes in his first appearance since the opening day of the season, and he went closest to a try but knocked-on just short of the Scarlets line in the opening few minutes of the game.
Tigers went to the Parc y Scarlets looking to build on their opening-round victory over Ulster with back-to-back fixtures against reigning European champions Toulon to come in December.
But, despite a positive start and an opening penalty from fly-half Owen Williams, it was the Scarlets who claimed the only two tries of the match in a 15-3 triumph as Tigers paid a high price for a number of errors.
“You cannot make that many errors in an important game and keep giving the opposition energy to play,” said director of rugby Cockerill.
“We kept knocking-on, we didn’t control position and we put pressure on ourselves by making mistakes. It wasn’t one thing that cost us, it was all the errors together.
“They were two pretty soft tries to concede – from an error in the back-field and from an interception – and our execution was poor. If you cannot hold on to the ball and you give points away, you lose the game and that is what happened.
“At half-time it was a five-point ball-game but in the second half we never got our composure back, which is disappointing.
“It is tough in this competition because you don’t get many chances. We’ve got Toulon back to back next, then Scarlets at home and Ulster away to come, and you probably need four wins to get out of this pool.”
Centre Anthony Allen came through 50 minutes in his first appearance since the opening day of the season, and he went closest to a try but knocked-on just short of the Scarlets line in the opening few minutes of the game.
