"It's just what we needed" is how Richard Cockerill described Friday's bonus-point win for Leicester Tiger against the Scarets at Welford Road.After two wins and two defeats in Pool 3 of the European Rugby Champions Cup, Tigers needed a big performance in the penultimate weekend of the group stages and they got it with six tries in a 40-23 victory.
“We went out with a positive mindset and we wanted to play,” said director of rugby Cockerill “It wasn’t perfect, but we got the five points and gave ourselves a fighting chance and hopefully we’ll have something to play for going into next week.
“I’m happy with the win – it’s just what we needed. It’s job done, with respect to the Scarlets who had a lot of injuries.”
Miles Benjamin and Jordan Crane scored first-half tries, but when Graham Kitchener was sin-binned after 33 minutes, the Scarlets forced their way back into the game with a try from prop Rob Evans and Tigers led by just three points at 14-11 by half-time.
Then in the second half Tigers added tries through Adam Thompstone, then two in six minutes from replacement hooker Tom Youngs and finally from Sam Harrison.
“It was always going to be loose because of the situation both clubs were in,” said Cockerill. “But we were really positive. We kicked to the corners and tried to build pressure on them.
“I thought the three-point margin at half-time was a poor return for what we had done. We’d scored a couple of tries but there were two or three other opportunities in the first half we did not take. Our discipline at the breakdown was poor too and we got a man in the bin.
“But then we got some control back and got some more tries in the second half.
“Now we’ll have a couple of days off and come back in on Monday and start looking to Ulster. We don’t know where we’ll end up in the pool just yet but we’ve done what we needed to do tonight and now we need to be better again against Ulster.”
Logovi’i Mulipola came through his first starting appearance since September, while Tom Croft got in a full 80 minutes as he continues his return from long-term injury. Brad Thorn, though, went off after just six minutes in his return from a calf injury. “Brad trained fully this week, but it was just feeling tight and he made the call,” said Cockerill.
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Positive performance pays off says Cockerill
17 January 2015 12:56 PM
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Positive performance pays off says Cockerill
17 January 2015 12:56 PM
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