“At the end of the day we have to admit that we were beaten better a better team on the day,” said Johnson. “We set high standards and play a very skilful game that demands high skill levels and for the first twenty minutes I thought we showed great intent and endeavour.
“Obviously the injury to Stephen Jones hurt us. He is a big player for us and we looked disjointed after he left the field. We put ourselves under pressure with some of the mistakes we made and often the timing of things was just a little bit out.
“We let ourselves down with our lack of execution and as coach I have got to look at myself as well for that. At this level there’s a fine line in everything you do but I would rather this team go out there and gives things a go than not try anything new at all.”