Toulouse captain Thierry Dusatoir has suggested that the team cannot make excuses for the manner of their 32-7 defeat at the hands of Saracens.
Sarries stand-off Owen Farrell kicked 17 points as his side opened up their European Rugby Champions Cup campaign in winning style.
However, Dusatoir has claimed that Stade cannot use Friday's terrorist attack in Paris as an excuse for their poor performance at Allianz Park.
He is quoted by EPC Rugby's official website as saying: "At half-time we knew the game was gone but the purpose of the second-half was to keep out Saracens. The first-half was a big disappointment for us but we are going to learn a lot from this defeat."
"It would not be nice for me to find excuses in what happened last night in Paris. Our country is going through a bad moment but we lost tonight because Saracens were better than us. It's true that a lot of people were talking about last night's shocking events but today we were just playing sport."
In the second round of pool fixtures, Toulouse host French rivals Oyonnax, whose game with Ulster was postponed in the wake of the Paris attacks.
Chris O'Keefe
