CONOR O'Shea admits his Harlequins side could not have given anything more after they crashed out of the Premiership play-offs at Leicester.
Saturday's loss at Welford Road denied Quins a shot at Northampton Saints, who they beat in the league only last week, in the final at Twickenham.
But director of rugby O'Shea had no problems with the way his side performed – instead giving credit to Leicester for a stunning display in front of their home fans.
He said: “We knew it was going to be ferocious and we probably took them by surprise in the first half the way we went about our business, but I don't want people to forget just how well we played in that first 40 minutes.
“But Leciester just ramped it up after the break. They were brilliant, like rabid animals at times the way they were going, and sometimes you just lose composure away from home.
“If we had played like we did in the first half against most teams we would have been out of sight at half-time, but in the second half Leicester were absolutely outstanding.
“However, I have nothing but admiration and pride for the way we came up here and tried to play as we didn't go into our shells and gave it our best shot. I thought we played pretty well, we just came up against a force in the second half that played at a level we couldn't match.”
