The NEC Harlequins head coach in particular was upset with referee David Changleng and the way he handled the rolling maul, which Evans felt his side had a clear advantage in.

"I thought we played well and I thought we were comfortably the stronger team," began Evans in the post match press conference. "I felt that the way the lineout drive was officiated was extraordinarily unusual in a way that I've not seen elsewhere in any country where the game is played."

"We scored two good tries and I thought we scrummed well, our lineout was good and we looked dangerous with the ball in hand. We didn't knock the ball on much or throw many forward passes and our contact skills were pretty good."

"This is a high level competition and if you get a real area of dominance then you expect it to bring its due reward. I'm not saying Castres didn't play some good football; they scored a good try and their goal kicking was excellent but frankly you should get due reward."

"He (the referee) didn't penalise them for collapsing the maul. Once the maul is moving and there are players around him then the law is very, very clear that if someone comes in from the side or collapses the maul then that is a penalty."

Quins dominated the final quarter with the teams locked at 23-23, but were unable to find a match winning score. Evans knows that failing to convert the pressure into points could prove very costly to the sides chances of reaching the knockout stages of the tournament in the New Year.

"I think we should have been awarded a penalty try with about ten minutes to go and we would have been on three tries then. We'd have won the game and been on three tries, which is the difference between possibly coming away with five points instead of two. Given the group we're in that is huge."

"I thought we played the last ten minutes really well; we kept bashing away at it and tried to play and control field position. We missed two kicks and that is disappointing as they were chances to win it. It shouldn't take away from the fact that lots and lots of areas of our game were pretty good."

"The way we've played (against both Munster and Castres) and to only have three points is bitterly disappointing, as we feel we should have about five or six. Had we lost then we would be finished."