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Alex Dombrandt admitted Harlequins paid the price for being below their best in their 47-19 Investec Champions Cup defeat by Toulouse.
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Quins were unable to register consecutive victories over Top 14 opposition after a combination of their shortcomings and Toulouse’s attacking brilliance resulted in a seven-try rout at The Stoop.
Chasing the game from an early stage, the London club became increasingly loose and turned over the ball far too often before falling apart in the final quarter.
“It’s a tough one to take. We knew how big the challenge was against Toulouse,” England number eight Dombrandt said.
“Sometimes you’ve got tip your hat and they were excellent. They have stars across their team. They took their opportunities well.
“In some areas we put our best foot forward and in others we didn’t. Against Toulouse when you don’t quite get it right they punish you.
“When a game gets loose they are one of the best teams in the world at taking advantage of that. But I can’t fault the boys for trying to nullify their threats.
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“We had full belief in ourselves that we can beat any team, but that wasn’t to be. We’ll come out of this with some big learnings and will get better from it.”
Quins lost second row Dino Lamb – their primary line-out forward – to a first-half head injury after he was knocked out in a clash of heads when tackled by Pita Ahki.
Lamb received lengthy medical attention on the field before being carried off on a stretcher and had regained consciousness by the interval.
“We got off to a good start and the injury took the sting out of the game a bit,” Dombrandt said.
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“We’re not using it as an excuse because it was the same for both teams to get back into the swing of things.”
Five-time champions Toulouse have amassed 14 tries in the opening rounds of the Champions Cup and they outclassed Quins despite making a number of mistakes.
Antoine Dupont was more conspicuous as the match progressed and the France captain admits Europe is an important goal in a season that will end with him taking part in the Olympics as part of the national sevens side.
“The Champions Cup has always been a special competition for us. We saw in the last two weeks that we are very motivated for this competition,” Dupont said.
“We had a big competition with the World Cup and it will be the same with the Olympics. I also have the Top 14 and the Champions Cup.
“I have a very busy year. But I love that and I’m excited for these competitions and I will have to work a lot to be competitive in all of them.”
