Heineken Cup
O'Shea fumes at 'terrible' Harlequins
ESPN Staff
October 12, 2013
Scarlets' Scott Williams scored a brilliant try at the Stoop © Getty Images
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With Round One of the Heineken Cup well under way, we have rounded up the best quotes from the coaches so far.

Harlequins 26-33 Scarlets

Harlequins' Conor O'Shea: "I'm angry and angry. I thought we were terrible. We made so many basic errors, I'm furious. We can talk about injuries and about various different things but I'm annoyed. When you have a bloke who dances along a touchline to score a try when he's easier to blow into touch, that shouldn't happen.

"There were some individuals out there who gave everything like Mike Brown, Nick Easter and Chris Robshaw, but it's not a game of touch. At times it looked like that with some of the tries they scored. We have to man up and not feel sorry for ourselves. We have to take the flak that will come our way and absolutely correctly come our way because we've earnt that.

Scarlets' Simon Easterby: "I'm delighted with the way we went about our business. It's vital that you win your home games in the Heineken Cup and if you can get points on the road then that's a big advantage.

"But this won't mean anything we don't get a result at home nest weekend. This was a big performance but we have to keep our feet on the ground."

Edinburgh 29-23 Munster

Edinburgh's Alan Solomons: "We know we have got a long way to go. We are under no illusions on that. But to me, it is important that we keep improving week by week. It was great for the guys that they got that result. It was a real boost to their confidence.

"I'm a massive believer that the difference between success and failure is the finest line in the world. If you persevere, you will cross that line. We are a determined lot and we are most certainly going to persevere."

Munster's Rob Penney: "We are ruing some poor mental preparation because you don't change from one week to the next like that physically in any way. Laidlaw kicked beautifully and the proof is in the pudding. If you leave after 80 minutes and you are behind on the scoreboard then you don't deserve to win.

"I can't take anything away from Edinburgh at all. They nullified our threat, defended well and took their opportunities. We weren't good at all but that's not taking anything away from Edinburgh. We were not allowed to be good."

Exeter Chiefs 44-29 Cardiff Blues

Chiefs coach Rob Baxter: "In the first half we played with real intent and the attitude that we took on to the pitch following last week was absolutely fantastic - not just a good attitude to attack the game but also the physicality and strength of the carries.

"Obviously the battle for us is to keep the quality for longer periods and when you end up on the defensive side, you don't end up conceding a couple of relatively soft penalties for a knock-on and an across-the-chest tackle. To give up a couple of those when you don't need to is a bit frustrating."

Blues boss Phil Davies: "We talked at half-time. We didn't do anything that we said we would do, particularly for our kicking game and, that gave them too many opportunities to come back at us. I think we had to make 100 tackles and we missed 20 and that is not good enough at this level.

"We have to give Exeter credit for the way that they played but in the second half we were a bit more like it. They are a good attacking side but we came back second half to score those four tries. The first half was gone and we had to something about it - which we did and got some points back on the board.

"We had far more control on the game in the second half, far more field position. To get four tries was pleasing to get that point in the end to give us some momentum going in to next week. We'll fix up what we need to fix and we will go in to Toulon with a bit of momentum."

Castres 19-13 Northampton Saints

Northampton's Jim Mallinder:"It was always going to be a bit of a scrap out here. It's the way they play, they're a good side with a big chunky pack, bossed around well by Rory Kockott and that's what happened today. We came with the intention to play some rugby, which backfired against us a little bit in the first minutes with that interception.

"What Castres did very well is slow us down, we struggled to get any real quick ball in the contact, we struggled to get on the front foot. When you combine that with hard decisions from the referee, it gets frustrating. Our set piece was solid today, our scrum in particular did well against a massive pack. Our defence is looking good, and generally our game is in good shape. We came back into the game and had our chances. If we had taken those we could be the ones smiling right now. Instead we're frustrated that we couldn't get a win, but it is a point."

Ulster 22-16 Leicester Tigers

Ulster's Mark Anscombe: "We know what Paddy [Jackson] is capable of and as a team we have all the confidence in the world in the guy, he is only human and you don't put A-grade performances in week in week out.

"They might be happy with a point but our objective was to get four points and we achieved that, each week and each game we play that is our objective and if we stick to doing that we'll come through."

Leicester's Paul Burke: "Any point at Ravenhill we're really pleased with, to come to Ravenhill is a difficult to play, previous years have proven if you don't win your away games you need to pick up a bonus and we did that.

"It is probably what we deserved out of the game after going nine points down, the resolve and the character we showed to get ourselves back and for Owen to kick that penalty to get us that bonus point was an outstanding effort from everyone."

Connacht 17-23 Saracens

Saracens' Mark McCall: "It's an important four points. It was a tough and physical game so I am just happy to come here and take the points. They kicked just about everything tonight and found space in our back field and put us under real pressure when they got their tries and got a real energy from that.

"We did not cope with that all that well. We had started the game great and also the start of the second half, and had a couple of chances which we didn't take, but they defended bravely and had that chance at the end, so I am just grateful to come away with a result.

Connacht's Pat Lam: ""There were big calls at crucial times, but I am so proud of my team particularly up front where the boys were massive. But when you get a game that close, there was no doubt that some of the calls were right, but it's just consistency.

"To get a penalty against us for holding on and, in that last play of the game going for a win, if you take a look at the video and have a look at how many [Saracens] guys are offside, in from the side - all the things we were penalised for."

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