Steve Borthwick pointed towards the “resilience” and “composure” of his Leicester Tigers players following the come-from-behind victory over Worcester Warriors.
"What we want to do is build that experience so we are building that level of competition in the group as well"
Speaking post-match, the Tigers head coach admitted the side undid their own good work to head in to the half-time break trailing the Warriors at Sixways Stadium.
“I am pleased with the result, yes,” said Borthwick.
“But, I am really pleased with the way the players reacted during the game.
“Whilst we didn’t do a lot wrong in that first half, we made mistakes after doing some good work.
“What that meant was we were down on the scoreboard, by two tries, and the players showed enormous resilience and composure to come through that, stick with it and get the win in the end.”
In the build-up to the Round 20 fixture, Borthwick spoke about wanting to see an 80-minute performance from his players and, when asked post-match, said he was pleased with what he saw from the players.
“Yes, that was an 80-minute performance today,” he said.
“We had great impact from the players who come on off the bench and what I want is the best 80 minutes we can possibly get from each position.”
Borthwick made a handful of changes to his starting side for the clash with Worcester, including youngsters Joe Heyes, Tommy Reffell, Cameron Henderson in his pack.
When asked about the continued focus on adding experience to his new look Leicester squad, the Tigers head coach said: “This is still a very new group together.
“We have got some very experienced Leicester Tigers players in Ben and Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, but we have still got others who have played very little for Leicester Tigers.
“What we want to do is build that experience so we are building that level of competition in the group as well.”
Fifteen months to the day since the Tigers last played a fixture in front fans at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, supporters were back in the stands at a Premiership fixture at Sixways.
Asked about the influence of supporters, Borthwick said: “I was really pleased that there was a huge number of Leicester Tigers supporters here in among the fans that were allowed to be here with us at Sixways today.
“I hope they go away proud of their team's performance and can see quite clearly how hard their players are working for their team.
“We are all excited to have even more Leicester Tigers supporters back next weekend at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.”
Tigers welcome League-leaders Bristol Bears to Leicester next weekend and, while focus will switch to the Round 21 fixture soon enough, Borthwick was keen for his players - and fans - to enjoy the victory for now.
“I want to make sure we enjoy this win today, as this is a club that has not won a lot of games in the past few years and it’s important that when we win, we make it special,” he said.
“Come Monday, we’ll start focusing on Bristol … it will be a great challenge, they’re a superb team and we will do our very best to prepare for that game.”
