The Kiwi coach admits there is still room for improvement but he emphasised the importance of hitting the ground running in a tough pool, which also contains Saracens and Clermont Auvergne.

“It’s the perfect start – it’s such a tough pool that you can be knocked out just as quickly as you’ve started,” said Schmidt.

“I thought we converted a few chances to keep the gap between us and Racing, because they came back from almost 20 points down last week against Toulouse, and we were conscious we couldn’t let them back into the game.

“They came close to doing it, so it was good to see the composure from the guys to pull away again.

“At 26-19 we felt we had control of the ball. We kicked our goals, scored a nice try but we need more than that.

“It is a big lesson to take out of it. We have to control the ball better than we did.”