Sale Sharks head coach Tony Hanks has admitted it is going to hurt watching Brive in the quarterfinals after his side failed to reach the last eight.

Hanks's side needed a victory and needed to deny Brive a bonus-point at Edgeley Park to progress from Pool Five, but went down 9-19 as the French side reached the last eight for the second successive season.

"It's really disappointing and its going to hurt watching Brive play in a quarterfinal in April," he said.

"We will use this as motivation and we have to learn from it and use it when we are next in a position like this.

"We shouldn't overact - we were in a tough group with Brive and Agen and we are disappointed not to go through so that shows how far we have actually come this season.

"We played against a good side, we shouldn't forget that.

"We were a little bit guilty at times of focusing on the eight points needed, but that's how it goes.

"We won the kicking duals in the first half and put them under pressure, it wasn't pretty but it was working and we put them under pressure.

"In the second half we weren't as clinical as we needed to be and didn't respect the conditions maybe as well as we should have."