FLY-HALF Tiff Eden admitted Warriors didn’t execute the basics well enough in La Rochelle as they suffered a 35-11 defeat in the conclusion to their European Challenge Cup campaign on Friday night.

Dean Ryan’s men enjoyed a strong first-half display as the scrum dominated and Andy Symons slotted two penalties to give them a 6-0 lead.

But Eden knows they let it slip after the break, as the French side helped themselves to four tries.

“It was a really promising first half display and the forward pack fronted up which gave us opportunities to get into good field position,” said Eden.

“But we should have been more clinical and we couldn’t get our basics right and ultimately they punished us.”

Warriors did get themselves back into the contest when Luke Baldwin bagged a try but a strong La Rochelle side rallied at the end to put the visitors to the sword.

And Eden believes his side didn’t cope well enough when under pressure.

He explained: “We didn’t deal with the pressure well in the second period and let a couple of soft tries in which could’ve been prevented.

“We put pressure on ourselves just through a few errors and if you don’t get the basics right you aren’t going to be able to compete especially at this level.

“When you give big men some momentum like that it’s tricky to stop them.

“Our effort was certainly there and nobody can fault that. It’s just our execution and defence that let us down.”

Warriors have used the European Challenge Cup as a tool to blood some of their younger players like Eden, who feels the benefit of having played two full games against Zebre and La Rochelle.

And with Tom Heathcote and Ryan Lamb in front of him in the fly-half pecking order, the 21-year-old is aiming to challenge his teammates for a first-team spot.

He added: “Playing in the Challenge Cup has definitely given me some valuable experience.

“Having been out for a while, playing is really important for me. I need to be getting minutes under my belt to develop my game.

“My target now is to put a bit more pressure on those in front of me and hopefully get another opportunity and take it.

“I have to keep training hard in all areas of the game. Tom and Lamby are very good at what they do so I have to raise my game to their level.”