ULSTER COACH MARK Anscombe acknowledged that his side were beaten by the “better team,” after seeing them lose 27-16 in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals at Twickenham today.

“We were flat in the first-half and their defence was outstanding,” Anscombe told Sky Sports.

The New Zealand-born coach continued: “They were turning us around. We were playing behind their vantage line too much.

“We were clearly just beaten by a better team.

“When you get beaten like that, you have to take it on the chin

He said that his team need to “get the confidence back into our game,” after the impressive form displayed in their hugely promising start to the season has dwindled somewhat of late.

Anscombe vowed that his men would continue fighting on though, as there is “a PRO12 competition we still want to win”.

Similarly, Ulster captain Rory Best said he was “bitterly disappointed” at the outcome of the game.

“They beat us at the breakdown,” he explained. “We weren’t able to respond.”

He also blamed “unforced errors” for the loss, but added:

“Credit to Saracens – they put us under a lot of pressure.

“The first 40 minutes especially, we weren’t ourselves.”

He praised the performance of Owen Farrell, saying “we knew he wasn’t going to miss [his kicks],” and added that Ulster were going to have to “take a look at ourselves” in the coming days.

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