Steve Borthwick said pride in his players was his immediate takeaway from the 47-28 win over London Irish at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Speaking after the seven-try effort from his side, Borthwick was in high praise for his squad and their opponents in Round 20 of the Gallagher Premiership.

"It was a tough game, London Irish are a really good side and we saw that today," said Borthwick.

"They are tremendously dangerous in attack and we had to work really hard out there today.

"I'm really proud of the players, it has been a really challenging period and every week they are working so hard to put in performances that the supporters are proud of and I hope they are proud of the players today.

"They gave their all, they played tough and it was pleasing to see that."

A red card to Curtis Rona saw The Exiles down a man for much of the match, which Borthwick said played a part but did not stop the visitors showing their ability - especially in attack - in front of more than 19,000 fans on Saturday afternoon.

"Despite the cards, as I said, we had to work exceptionally hard," he said.

"We made a couple of errors and they took their chances. Yes they had a man, or two men at a point, down but they still had incredible pace and quality on the pitch, and we knew that coming into the game.

"It was a tough game, we always thought it was going to be but I’m really pleased the players managed to work their way through it in the way that they did."

The Tigers Head Coach also made a point of piling praise onto the support from the stands.

"We are so privileged to have the support we do, they just keep turning up and they add so much," he said.

"Another almost 20,000 crowd here at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on a Six Nations day where England are playing at home, the effort of our supporters has been brilliant all season and I hope they know how important it is to us."

Tigers travel to Newcastle next Friday night in the latest round of the Premiership Rugby Cup and Borthwick says there will be changes to the squad after a run of seven successive league fixtures.

However, said that nothing changes in terms of focus or importance for whoever it is that earns the chance to represent Leicester Tigers.

"Whoever represents Leicester Tigers, goes out to win, and that is an expectation we have as coaches, the players have and I am certain our supporters will have," he said.

"No game is less important, this is an important game for us.

"We will have a younger team and have some people who get an opportunity they have been working hard to get.

"But, we still expect a tough performance, expect a tough, hard performance. We always expect that."

Steve Borthwick will continue to oversee the programme during the return of the Premiership Rugby Cup, with assistant coach Brett Deacon taking on extra responsibility to lead the team as Head Coach for the trip to Newcastle Falcons.