Geordan Murphy dedicated a first win of the season on Saturday to the work of every member of the Leicester Tigers squad.
After disappointing defeats against Worcester Warriors and Saracens in the opening two rounds of the Gallagher Premiership campaign, Tigers hosted a Gloucester side who had two wins from their two games.
In the end, thanks to a late Tom Hardwick penalty, Tigers came through to a 16-13 victory at Welford Road.
“We were incredibly disappointed in the first two outings of the season, but Tom Youngs spoke in the dressing room about the entire squad making that today,” said head coach Murphy.
“We had a really physical week in training because we felt we needed to do that and some guys who did a great job in preparing the team weren’t involved today.
“But we made a plan in the week and got stuck into each other. I thought everyone did a really good job in working to prepare this team for today and that was probably the foundation of the performance.”
Tigers led 10-3 midway through the first half following Noel Reid’s first try for the club, but Gloucester - who had already beaten Sale and Wasps - got back into the game in the second half and led 13-10 with a Joe Simpson try inside the last 20 minutes.
A kick from Hardwick levelled the scores and then he landed the decisive blow with just a few seconds remaining on the clock. Tigers, though, still had to get through phase after phase of defensive work from the restart until finally forcing an error which signalled the end of the game and victory over one of only two teams to win in each of the first two rounds.
“Games like that test you and push you to the wire, but we did well defensively,” added Murphy.
“Gloucester are a quality side, they are a dangerous side and we stayed at it.
“It wasn’t a perfect performance from us, we didn’t manage to do everything we talked about doing in the week, but there was a huge amount of belief and determination.
“We talked about our performances in the first two weeks of the season when didn’t really throw any shots. Tonight was a little bit more of what we wanted to do.
“We made some good opportunities and were really disappointed we didn’t finish that good chance in the first half when Jordan Olowofela broke through.
"But when you are at the line and backs against the wall, you really need to rely on team-mates and we showed that spirit and character today to rely on each other and count on each other.”
