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Credit where credit is due

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It may have escaped some people's notice, but Tigers have won their last two matches. It may have sneaked through largely unnoticed because, for Tigers, there is more story in losing than in winning.

That's the price we pay for the club's long-standing successes. It goes with the territory, but it doesn't make it any more welcome.

There were pundits queuing up to enjoy putting a metaphorical boot in just a few short weeks ago.
 
Make no mistake, everyone was disappointed by the defeat at home to London Irish (though any one of the missed kicks would have made up the narrow deficit) and it was difficult to stomach the margin of defeat at Gloucester, especially at half-time when the hosts had already racked up 30 points.
 
Both defeats came on the back of the hammering at Bath. No two ways about it, we got our backsides kicked, as Cockers said afterwards.
 
The shock of that defeat must have been still reverberating during the Irish and Gloucester games and the team looked understandably shorn of confidence.
 
The results wrote the headlines for themselves, and The Tig can understand why so many outside of Leicester were enjoying it.
 
It is time for the same people, therefore, to give praise where it is due.

Can you imagine the feeling of pressure on the shoulders of the players in the lead-up to the game against Quins, a side that have enjoyed very good results at Welford Road in recent years? Imagine a fourth defeat, especially going into the opening game in Europe against an Ulster side who also know what it is to win at Welford Road.
 
The win against Harlequins was not the prettiest – but then many of the greatest wins have not been picture-book stuff – but it probably just as valuable as any in recent seasons.
 
Burden lifted, confidence boosted, spirits restored, you could see the difference it made in the opening 30 minutes against Ulster.
 
Well done to every one of the coaches and players who “dug in” as Cockers puts it, rolled up their sleeves and slugged out. No one is saying this team has cracked it, but being able to come back from the depths of three defeats, with the world weighing in their two-penn’orth, and to beat good sides in Quins and Ulster in successive weeks says volumes for the spirit still wrapped in a Tigers shirt.