Johnson gives his reaction to Toulon defeat

"I'm disappointed. We had an opportunity to win the game but we couldn't close it down so at the moment we're all a little bit disappointed. In a couple of months we'll see the true measure of that result.

"The scrum was superb today and I thought our intent was good, but they held possession for long periods. They didn't play much footy, just held the ball for long periods and frustrated us. We're a side that wants to play but I think in the end there was a bit of naivety.

"Our endeavour was good and the willingness was there, in difficult conditions. People don't understand that, it was swirling out there, to get field position wasn't easy and we aren't a side that just kicks the ball in the air and hopes. They just held it for such long periods, that's the way they win and it's very, very hard to get the ball off them. There's a lot to learn from it, there's no doubt about that.

"I wouldn't want to change our attitude, I think we were the only side trying to play footy, we've just got to have a good hard look at ourselves and see what we did wrong. We have to be honest with ourselves and get back on the horse.

"We won't know until we get to the end of January how good or bad a result this was today. It's a tough pool, four really good teams up against it, and coming to Toulon and taking a bonus point could prove to be a valuable point so we are not going to allow ourselves to get too despondent. It's easy to be down on yourself when you lose a game like we did today, but we can't afford that, we have a short week and a quick turnaround until the leading team in the Premiership come to town. That's the size of the challenge we face.

"We're disappointed because we had a chance to get more than that, but in the wash-up it may be pretty good. We'll see. There's a hell of a lot of rugby still to be played in this pool and we've still got the opportunity to control our own destiny.

"Much will be made about the situation with the clock at the end but I don't think we need to. The information was passed on, on the sidelines, with about 10 minutes to go that there was some kind of malfunction. The referee has passed on the information to the players and they were aware. To make an issue of that doesn't do justice to the game."