Pete Wilkins says Connacht will conduct a "pretty blunt" review of their heavy defeat at the hands of Bordeaux-Begles in the Investec Champions Cup.
The Westerners shipped six tries in a 41-5 loss in their opening Pool 1 clash against the Top14 side.
It was evident from early on that Yannick Bru's men had brought their 'A’ game and Connacht simply couldn’t live with their power, pace and hunger.
"You never want the scoreline to get away from you, which it absolutely did," said Wilkins after the game, their third loss in a row in all competitions.
"You don’t want it to get to that stage, but I think it was more the type of performance that disappointed me more so than the scoreline, particularly in the first half.
"There were areas in the second half, but I just felt we were a step behind Bordeaux in the first half and you see that in how we attacked and how we defended, how we reacted to turnover ball, you could see it in our kick-chase.
"I just felt we were one step behind them and that gave them the opportunity to build belief.
"I think a French team coming to Galway in mid-winter, they can come here, even the good teams, wondering which way it’s going to go but when you give them that foothold they get that confidence and they are too good a team not to play on the back of that platform."
The hosts trailed 12-5 at the break but any chance they had evaporated with the concession of two tries inside the opening 14 minutes of the second half.
Connacht also lost Mack Hansen to injury midway through the first half, the Ireland winger pulling up sharply and limping off.
They face a daunting trip to Saracens next Saturday and Wilkins said they won’t pull any punches in their analysis of this demoralising loss.
"We’ve got to work through this review, and we’ll have to be pretty blunt with the players and with each other on Monday around what we could and should have done better," said the Englishman, who is in his first season as boss.
"But what a carrot at the end of the week, to go away to Saracens and see what we can do to them.
"It’s going to be tough in a different way. The quality that Bordeaux brought, we knew this was going to be a very really big challenge.
"To go away to Saracens, the European pedigree they have, the internationals they have across the board.
"I don’t want to sound too excited too soon because we’ve got to process this defeat and get a lot better on the back of it.
"In terms of incentive of what lies ahead and having a full week to prepare and put the bits in place around selection, game planning, around training, we couldn’t wish to have a better scenario."
On Hansen's injury, Wilkins said: "It was a foot injury and that's the extent of all I know at this point.
"They’ll be assessing him and the first thing to see is it a recurrence of what he had at the back end of that World Cup campaign or is it something fresh.
"I’ll get the verdict on that, and we’ll find out in the next 48 hours whether that needs scanning or whether it’s something that will freshen up and come good."
Watch Munster v Bayonne in the Investec Champions Cup on Saturday from 4.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, or listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
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