‘Proud of the effort’ - Stirzaker

The scrum half captained the side for the first time at Sandy Park – and despite the defeat, paid tribute to his side’s endeavour.

“It was quite physical – no surprises there with the way we knew they would play,” he said.

“They’re a momentum-based side and we probably allowed them to have too quick ball and they kept coming at us.

“But I’m really proud of the effort – the boys really set a marker and we’ll move on to next week.

“The Premiership Rugby Cup is done and dusted now and next week will be hugely exciting for the club [first game of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby season against Bath on Friday night] – it was a massive occasion last year. Everyone at the club is pushing together to get a result.

“You try not to change too much – we want to focus on the process and systems that will get us a win on Friday.

“We’ll focus on what we know we can do well, the plan the coaches have put in place and try not to think too much about the occasion because it’s really got to be us just doing our jobs.”