A 40,000 crowd witness a first-ever trip to Wembley Stadium for the Tigers, but the match ended in a 9-9 stalemate with Toby Flood kicking the visitors’ points.
“It was a disappointing game as a spectacle, but it is two points away from home against a very good side. That will be important in the shake-up,” said Tigers director of rugby Cockerill.
“Both sides had good a defence, it got a bit nervy and nobody wanted to lose it. It was a strange sort of game in the end.
“They missed four penalties and that is bit of a let-off for us. Then both sides had a chance to win it with a drop goal each at the end but the draw is probably a fair result.
“We got some good field position but then turned over ball or gave away penalties in rucks. That was frustrating at times, but the resilience was good from us.
“We’ve played some good rugby in the last couple of weeks but today both teams probably cancelled each other out. Nobody really opened it up and got the game out of an arm-wrestle.
“But there will be a lot of sides play against Saracens and don't get two points out of the game. That is a positive for us. It’s two points we didn’t have before we started the day.”
Tigers now go into back-to-back home games against defending champions Harlequins and then Exeter Chiefs in the next two weekends with an unbeaten record at the start of the Aviva Premiership season and 12 points from three games.
“It’s a tough six-week period for us,” added Cockerill. “From Saracens away, we’ve got Quins, Exeter, Sale, then Toulouse and the Ospreys in Europe, that’s a tough run.
“We’ve got 12 points from three games and they’ll be massive over the course of the season. Hopefully we can build on that and move on.”
Tigers captain Geordan Murphy was an early casualty of the draw with Saracens, leaving the field after a bang on the knee in the opening quarter-hour. “It just stiffened up but hopefully it will be okay,” said Cockerill.
