Tigers lost 35-29 at London Wasps in round two and had a late penalty from Billy Twelvetrees to thank for taking a losing bonus point out of the game at Adams Park.
“Even with the players we have missing, we’ve got a good enough side to win these games,” said director of rugby Cockerill who has 11 senior players at the World Cup and experienced professionals like Craig Newby, Jordan Crane, Geoff Parling and Julian White on the injured list.
“We could’ve won against Exeter last week right at the death and we were in with a chance of winning this right to the end.
“But we fell short – not very short – and those are the lessons you learn in this game. Nobody said it was going to be easy.
“There is losing and then there is losing playing pretty well and I thought we played pretty well at times. We made a few errors and if we had been a bit smarter in the last 10 minutes when we had opportunities to put them under some pressure then potentially we could have won the game.
“The effort was fantastic and we’ll take the point because every point is important.
“We are not despondent, we will work hard this week and go to Newcastle next Saturday to try to win the game.
“These guys are all learning and it is up to the senior guys to make sure they are leading the way. We are only going to get stronger as the season goes on.”
Billy Twelvetrees scored all of the Tigers points, claiming two tries – finishing off smart breaks from Niall Morris and then George Ford – as well as kicking five penalties and two conversions.
His late kick in swirling wind and following a torrential downpour took Tigers back within seven points to secure a bonus point.
“We know Billy is a very talented player and he is starting to put it together week on week,” said Cockerill. “The kick at the end, in those conditions, and to give us a point from the game, was massive. We deserved to take something out of it.”
