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Tigers dig in to take points at Exeter

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Paul Burke praised an "outstanding effort" from the Leicester Tigers players after securing a 21-9 victory at Exeter Chiefs on Sunday.

Leading 15-0 at half-time following tries by Ben Youngs and Vereniki Goneva, Tigers saw Exeter gain a foothold with three second-half penalties before Toby Flood finally put the game out of reach and collected four vital Aviva Premiership points.

Though Tigers faced a fightback for the Chiefs, backs coach Burke said the attitude in defence was among the positives to take out of the game.

“This is always a difficult place to come and get a win but it was an outstanding effort from the boys,” said Burke. “They had to really stand up in the second half and we’re pleased to go home with the four points.

“We knew they would come at us, so it was important that we made a good start. They wanted to set the tempo so we had to start well. You want to take that momentum away from them and we managed to do that.

“Chiefs are a good side and they showed that in the way they came back at us in the second half. We dropped our intensity slightly, we made a few errors and missed a few tackles which allowed them to get some momentum.

“But the boys put their bodies on the line and that is exactly what you want to see as a team or as a coach. The effort not to let them cross our line was outstanding.

“When you travel away from home you need to be clinical and take your points and your opportunities, and we did that for the most part today.

“We made a lot of changes from last week and this is the start of a very tough run for us so we’re very pleased to get the result here.”

Tigers are back on home turf in Round 5 when Northampton Saints visit Welford Road in the opening derby game of the season. Kick-off on Saturday is at 3.15pm.