Leicester coach Richard Cockerill has paid tribute to his players in the wake of their thrilling win over London Irish on Sunday.
Late tries were only blot on brilliant display says Cockerill
Leicester coach Richard Cockerill has paid tribute to his players in the wake of their thrilling win over London Irish at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday.
The former England hooker, who took over from the departed Heyneke Meye, said that the attitude, spirit and resilience of his side was 'fantastic' following their 31-28 victory.
Leicester, who had not won away from home since September, held off a late fightback that saw the Exiles run in two tries in the dying minutes of the game.
Cockerill described the scores as the only blot on a brilliant display by his men.
"We deserved to win the game, he said. "But I'm disappointed that we gave one of our title rivals two points with those tries at the end.
"When we try to play a bit, and they try to play, these things happen. But the attitude, spirit and resilience of my players is fantastic.
"When you try to play you will make mistakes but we came here to win the game, and we did it."
Dangerous
Cockerill believes the result could provide the springboard to launch the Tigers into Guinness Premiership title contention.
"These four points (from today's win) put us in the mix and put pressure on those above us," he added.
"We've said to the players to go out and play, and they have done that. Suddenly we have a Leicester team who want to play - and that's dangerous.
"It will come down to the last game. They are all hard games, but this puts us in a position to get into the top four and push for the top two to get a home draw in the play-offs."
London Irish boss Toby Booth admitted that his side had left it too late to try and claw their was back into the match.
Booth suggested that international call-ups have affected his preparations but praised Leciester for their attacking play.
Punished
"We just gave ourselves too much to do today," he said. "We were outmanoeuvred a bit, made a couple of errors and were punished.
"We allowed them into the game when the game broke up a bit, but there is an attacking attitude to Leicester - good on them and I'm pleased that teams who want to attack are at the top.
"We know this is a difficult period. We get people back but don't get enough time.
"They have to go from learning one game plan to another game plan that might be totally different.
"We're playing a little bit safe at the moment, but I think we still did enough to win three of those games."
