Richard Cockerill is prepared for a backlash when his Leicester side face Munster this weekend after their third successive victory left the Tigers sitting pretty at the top of Pool Four. “It’s a good win, a great night for the club, and we want to enjoy it,” said Cockerill after tries from Vereniki Goneva, Mike Fitzgerald and Ben Youngs secured a 31-19 win at Thomond Park.
“But we won’t be getting too far ahead of ourselves. The scoreline probably flattered us a bit in the end and Munster are a good team. We know it’ll be another massive contest next week.”
After Goneva and Fitzgerald established an 18-6 lead before half-time Munster clawed themselves back to within four points before Youngs crossed for the decisive score. “This is a place not many teams come to and win, especially in Europe, and I’m delighted for the team,” said Cockerill. “The game ebbed and flowed, as it will when you’re against good sides, but we played some decent stuff. We learned some lessons at Worcester last week. We got the result there but we were a shadow of the side we want to be.”
Dan Biggar admitted Ospreys had not been at their best after scoring all of his side’s 19 points in the win over Bordeaux that left them level on points with Exeter in Pool Two. The Wales fly-half recovered from being taken out by Jean Baptiste Dubie’s high challenge – an incident for which Dubie was sent off – to score the crucial try and make it two wins from their opening three matches.
“Let’s give ourselves a big pat on the back as well because we’re in a good position to qualify from this pool now and we have to back it up next week,” said Biggar. “We were far from perfect today but we managed to get a good win after not playing at our best.”
Glasgow’s chances of qualifying from Pool Three are still very much alive after a convincing 43-6 victory over Scarlets orchestrated by the Australia wing Taqele Naiyaravoro. His hat-trick in the second half ensured that Gregor Townsend’s side picked up a bonus point and are only three points behind Northampton having played one game fewer.
