The Leicester changing room would have been a very bad place to be after their 50-25 loss to Saracens at Welford Road.

Yes, Leicester are missing a lot of players but some of the tackling was not acceptable. Defensively they are all over the place and are haemorrhaging points - their controlled game is just not working. They are being hit behind the gain line and really need to get that sorted.

Cockerill: feeling the pressure

There won't be too many teams who have any sympathy for Leicester though. They have their own problems with missing players and they will also remember all the kickings that they have had over the years at Welford Road.

Richard Cockerill would have worked them to a standstill this week and I expect the tackle bags would have taken a real beating too. He has two more league games before the cavalry return from the World Cup and I think he is really going to do some serious damage limitation.

I really like Cockerill and I hope he does not pay the ultimate price for this. We all remember Dean Richards getting the boot when he was coaching at Leicester and I really hope the same does not happen to Cockers.

These players will benefit from this in the long run, they really will The results may not be going their way, but it is a great learning curve for them - far better than them playing the odd game for the academy and then pushing weights the rest of the time.

I learnt my trade behind a beaten pack - if you can survive that and still do things then just wait until you get playing behind a winning pack. I am all for players being thrown into the deep end and seeing how they handle it - these Leicester lads are treading in some deep water and are learning a lot about themselves. I believe that dealing with this pressure as best as they can will really will enhance their careers at Leicester.

The pressure does not ease this weekend as they face Bath at Welford Road on Saturday. Bath will be hurting from that Gloucester loss - it really should have been a game that they won.

It seems that they are still having the same problems they had under Steve Meehan and that is the inability to close games off. They played their usual attractive rugby but their scrum was torn apart by Gloucester and that will be a concern for the Leicester game.

Bath are a very ambitious club, but If they want to make the top four then they have to make the most of their opportunities.

They will go into this game determined to pile even more misery onto Leicester and I think they will - I cannot see Leicester coming away with anything.

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