Tigers grabbed four tries and a valuable bonus point as they led 26-7 at half-time, and added one more try in the second period as Treviso fought back strongly.
Victory moved Tigers into second place in Heineken Cup Pool 2, three points behind Toulouse, but Cockerill says Treviso’s second-half performance will serve as a timely reminder of how tough it will be next weekend.
“It was a strange game in many ways,” said Tigers director of rugby Cockerill.
“We got the four tries in the first half and we played some good stuff, but maybe we started thinking it was job done.
“But you have to congratulate Treviso too because they kept themselves in the game and they scored three tries.
“We were a bit inaccurate in our work and it was certainly closer than we would have liked, but it is another win in the pool, we’ve taken five points from the game and now we can regroup and look to next weekend.
“This was a good reminder of what Treviso can do and we need to be better next week.”
Tigers welcomed back five England internationals following their autumn Test series, while Fiji wing Vereniki Goneva also returned from international duty and there were starts for Dan Bowden, Scott Hamilton and Ed Slater in a team showing eight changes from the line-up that gained an Aviva Premiership victory over Bath last week.
“The Test guys desperately wanted to play, but it is hard to come back and get into it, and we made changes early in the game where we could to protect the guys,” said Cockerill.
“But they’ve got that game under their belts with us now and we have to focus on next week. The players will know they are in for another tough afternoon and we understand the test that is ahead of us.”
