We've only ourselves to blame for this defeat laments Key

The 18-9 home reverse against Bourgoin ended hopes of cementing an Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final berth and Key admitted the squad were annoyed by their below-par display.

However, it was simple mistakes he thought had been remedied in recent contests that alarmed him the most.

"It was overall a very disappointing performance," said Key, having seen the hosts waste ample opportunities to overcome the French visitors.

"There was far too many unforced errors. That was something in our game early on in the season and certainly we've felt over the last six weeks – when we've won four of our last five matches – that we had eliminated that but it crept back into today's game.

"Just at the times when you needed to build and apply pressure we were relieving it for the opposition ourselves which was hugely disappointing."

Leeds were 12-0 down inside just 11 minutes after conceding two quickfire tries but Key admitted: "Those scores almost came out of nothing.

"I'm not discrediting Bourgoin – I thought their defence was outstanding – but certainly their second try, if we'd have held onto the ball we could have made a bigger break than we did.

"But we handed it over, they kicked ahead and scored from nowhere so it was a kick in the teeth.

"We picked ourselves up really well from there and had more than enough time to work our way back.

"We came in the more confident side at half-time having pulled back six points but unfortunately we didn't come out in the second half in the same frame of mind.

"We gave them a very quick and early three points and struggled to recover."

Misfiring Leeds even failed to capitalise when Bourgoin had a man dispatched to the sin-bin and Key conceded that was pivotal to the final outcome.

"We had to maximise all that pressure in their 22 but didn't take any," he said, refusing to blame a badly cut-up Headingley surface for the loss.

"We only have ourselves to blame. Our own errors today have caused defeat.

"We wanted to progress but our focus clearly now goes very heavily back onto the Guinness Premiership and hitting Leicester here on February 14."