Geordan Murphy admitted to be “frustrated and annoyed” after a 33-10 defeat at Saracens on Saturday when an hour’s hard work by his Leicester Tigers team was undone in the final quarter.
Leading 10-5 at half-time after a try from Jonah Holmes, Tigers were still in front on the hour-mark but then saw defending Premiership champions Sarries pull away and grab a bonus-point win with their two tries in the closing five minutes of the game at Allianz Park.
“I felt we were in a good place at half-time, we’d controlled territory well, but in the second half they were very, very good,” said head coach Murphy at the final whistle. "They got us under pressure and we just stopped playing.
“For 60 minutes we managed the game pretty well. We stayed in the territory battle. Then when we got behind on the scoreline - we blinked - and they got the ball in behind us, got some penalties and chipped away at the scoreboard.
“At 73 minutes they kicked to make it 21-10 so we were still in the game at that point.
“But we made some mistakes and at the end we’re chasing the game, we forced it and shipped two tries and that skews the scoreline.”
Starting the day in seventh place in a tightly-packed Gallagher Premiership table, Tigers slipped to ninth by the end of Round 13 and go to Worcester Warriors next Sunday.
“I’m very disappointed we didn’t get anything today with the work we put in, especially in that first hour,” added Murphy. “But you have to respect what Saracens do, they apply pressure and keep it on to get those late scores.”
