Cardiff Blues captain Ellis Jenkins bemoaned his side's bad luck with injuries after a 46-21 defeat to Stade Francais in Paris ended their hopes of playing Champions Cup rugby next season.
Danny Wilson's men capitulated after the break to concede six of the seven tries Stade recorded in the match, but they were not helped by losing five key men on the night.
Wing Tom James pulled out in the warm-up, his replacement Rhun Williams limped off in the first half, while Rey Lee-Lo, Steve Shingler, Willis Halaholo and Kirby Myhill also left the field over the course of the 80 minutes.
At the full-time whistle, it left flanker Jenkins playing centre and throwing into the line-out.
He said: "We were in a good position, but struggled with injuries. We lost pretty much all of our backs during the game and we were our own worst enemies at times.
"We made silly mistakes and a couple of dropped balls in their half allowed them to go the length. It was tough once they brought their strength off the bench and we had so many injuries.
"We're not making excuses, Stade are a good team, but when you miss key players it gets really tough."
Wilson's Blues had defied the early loss of James and Williams to lead 14-10 at the break thanks to tries from Macauley Cook and Nick Williams. Waisea Vuidarvuwalu had scored Stade's try, but the home team dominated the second half as the wheels fell off for the patched-up Blues.
Giorgi Melikidze, Mathieu De Giovanni, Laurent Panis and Clement Daguin all crossed for the French giants, while wing Sekou Macalou scored twice within seven minutes.