Richard Cockerill: Our work rate was fantastic
Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill says the work rate of his team in the 46-10 Heineken Cup win over Scarlets was fantastic.
Leicester was behind early on in the contest before coming back to score a number of tries in an entertaining display of aggressive and efficient rugby. Scarlets was blown out of sight.
Cockerill says that every single part of the team worked hard to make the result possible. The real test will now be whether Leicester is able to produce similarly impressive performances at a later stage
in the competition.
There were a lot of positives to the way Leicester played against Scarlets. Cockerill must now make sure this sort of form is taken back into the Premiership arena as well.
A lot of positives
It could have been very easy for Leicester's players to let their heads drop once the Scarlets got in front. However, there was plenty of noise and encouragement coming from all sections of the Tigers
team.
Leicester was running off the ball with an energy and enthusiasm that has been missing in Premiership games. Scarlets players did not have a single second to think because there was always a Leicester
player ready to make a challenge or throw in a tackle.
It takes a lot of physical fitness for a team to keep the opposition on the ropes for an entire game. Leicester did not make it seem as though the 80th minute was any different to the first and this kept
the team out in the lead.
"If we are going to achieve anything this year we have got to man-up physically. You have to give the players credit as they worked really hard and their willingness to play without the ball was outstanding.
You want to put your body on the line and show everybody how much you care about what you do," said Cockerill.
Translation of success
Leicester has to translate this sort of European success into Premiership form. This is because there are a bigger pool of teams than ever before trying to bring Leicester down and take away the club's
domestic crown.
Leicester would have given any other team in the world a run for their money with the performance that was produced against Scarlets. Cockerill has enough experience to know that if he can get the team
playing half as well every week then Premiership wins will become a formality.
"I thought we played well in the first half, we actually created lots of opportunities but just didn't have the composure to take them. We chased the game too early and in the second half, we just had
to keep playing and I knew the opportunities would come. I thought the crowd, who are the club first and foremost, were outstanding," he added.
Betting advice
Leicester is in very good form so take advantage of this. Back the side to retain the Premiership title and there will still be some attractive odds available on the market for the club to win the Heineken
Cup.
Toby Flood is a great player to back in the Leicester team at present. He has just signed a new contract with the club and sent over a combined total of seven kicks during the match with Scarlets. This
is good form and he'll always have chances to score points as the main kicker in the team.
Tom Croft is a good bet to score a try at any time for Leicester. He gets into good advanced positions and has enough agility to evade the strongest of challenges.
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