Richard Cockerill admitted it was an 'old style' Leicester performance that saw off the threat of Ulster 20-9 at Welford Road
Leicester happy with result that keeps Tigers top of Pool Four
Richard Cockerill admitted it was an 'old style' Leicester performance that saw off the threat of Ulster 20-9 at Welford Road on Saturday.
In a Heineken Cup game that was not easy on the eye, Tigers eventually ground their Pool Four opponents down thanks to a try from Matt Smith midway through the second half.
It knocked the stuffing out of their opponents, who were unable to register a single point after going in 9-9 at the break.
"We did enough to win, our defence and set-piece were very good and I thought we were very consistent over the full 80 minutes," said the Leicester coach.
"It was an old Tigers' performance as we squeezed the life out of them."
Open group
Leicester now face a tough double header against leading French club Clermont and Cockerill knows both games will test his players more than a resolute Ulster did at Welford Road.
"The group is very open, we are pleased to have two wins but Clermont is a very, very hard place to go.
"Manu Tuilagi will be back for that game and Ben Youngs (who came on as a second half replacement against Ulster) looked good tonight as we have looked after him for the past four weeks."
Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin was unhappy his side's performance had not resulted in them at least picking up a losing bonus point.
"We played some fantastic rugby and we are very disappointed that we didn't come away with a bonus point," he said. "Small things make the difference and we were not careful enough in protecting the ball."
Ulster now have successive games against Italian side Aironi and their coach believes they are still in contention to make further progress.
He added: "We are far from out of it."
