As Richard Cockerill savoured victory against a team who seven days previously had inflicted on Leicester their heaviest defeat in the European Cup he poured scorn on those who had spent the week insisting the club were falling apart. He then addressed a fundamental reason why Leicester have not been dining at club rugby’s top table in recent times.
The success against Munster, delivered by Owen Williams’ 52-metre penalty one minute from time, meant Leicester had lost just once in Europe here in 34 games. Tigers at home, they have turned into moggies away, enduring 11 heavy defeats on the road in the Premiership and the Champions Cup in the past two years.
They have become salvage specialists, reacting to a poor performance by digging deep in front of their own supporters, rescuing their reputation through sheer will and desire without fully offsetting the backward step they had taken and ending up slightly further away from where they want to be.
“We have to be better away,” said Cockerill, who read in the buildup to the game that he was one defeat away from the sack after six years as the club’s director of rugby. “Criticism of the playing squad is one thing, but criticism of the fabric of the club and how we run our business is another.
“We have a very good club. We own our own stadium and pay our bills. It hurts when people want to pick holes in it, but the club has been around for a long time and will be here in 100 years. The coaching team here don’t agree on everything, but having different opinions on how you want to play is healthy.
“I think I am a strong leader and I lead from the front. Some people like me and some don’t and I don’t really care. I’m in here for the battle until someone tells me I am not. I have been here a long time. That doesn’t mean I should stay but I want to be here because I think I do a good job.”
Cockerill’s side were prepared for Munster the second time around, especially at the breakdown where they protected their own ball and disrupted their opponents’ far more ruthlessly than they had at Thomond Park. While their reaction was impressive, what matters is taking the same attitude into their next four games, three of which are away at Exeter, Wasps and Racing 92 – with a home match against Saracens on New Year’s Day.
“We need to become more consistent,” the Leicester captain, Tom Youngs, said. “We have changed our style in the last couple of seasons and it takes time to buy into. We cannot lose sight of what we are good at and we have to take that attitude we showed against Munster to Exeter on Christmas Eve but also have a different mindset. We have to be about more than reacting well to disappointment.”
Cockerill pointed out that Leicester were missing a number of players, including the first-choice props Marcos Ayerza and Dan Cole as well as Matt Toomua and Telusa Veainu, but what happened in Munster was not a one-off and it was a prop in Ayerza’s position, Ellis Genge, who led the fightback on Saturday, getting his side on the front foot when they were six points down and a man short with Manu Tuilagi in the sin-bin.
“Everyone stepped up and showed great character,” Genge said. “We did not give up and this has to be a stepping stone for us. There was a bit of a sly dig at Cockers in the week, but we are all behind him and he is behind us. He works hard and puts his heart and soul into the club. As long as we have faith in each other, carry on.”
The victory kept Leicester in contention for the quarter-finals, although they will need to win in Paris in the next round having secured just one victory in France in the past nine seasons. Munster dropped to second in the group; behind Glasgow, but they have a game in hand and over the two matches against Leicester scored 54 points to 18, five tries to none and secured six points to four.
“Leicester deserved to win,” Rassie Erasmus, Munster’s director of rugby, said. “We are a team that is growing and along the way we will lose matches like this and win others. We knew it was going to be really tough and that we were not invincible. We are building solidly, but we have a way to go.”
Leicester: Worth (Thacker, 77); Betham (Brady, 72), Roberts, Tuilagi, Thompstone; O Williams, B Youngs; Genge (Mulipola, 60), T Youngs (capt), Cilliers (Bateman, 50), Slater, Kitchener (Fitzgerald, 50), Hamilton, O’Connor, McCaffrey (M Williams, 60).
Pens: O Williams 6. Sin-bin: Tuilagi 28, T Youngs 75.
Munster: Zebo; Sweetnam, Taute, R Scannell, Earls (Conway, 69); Bleyendaal, Murray (Williams, 72); Kilcoyne (Cronin, 50), N Scannell, J Ryan (Archer, 74), D Ryan, Holland (Kleyn, 50), O’Mahony (capt), O’Donnell (O’Donoghue, 62), Stander.
Try: N Scannell. Con: Bleyendaal. Pens: Bleyendaal 3.
Sin-bin: Zebo 65.
Referee: P Gaüzère (France). Attendance: 24,213.
