Cockerill feels Tigers must show improvement in bigger arena

IT’S TEMPTING to think that there’s a whole lot of hooey being spoken in Oadby, the Tigers’ training ground just outside Leicester. Coach Richard Cockerill has already begun to redecorate the trophy room with Premiership silverware and while the condition could be another manifestation of Leicester’s alpha dog syndrome, the English Premiership win was apparently not good enough.

The Twickenham final last weekend against London Irish was not so much a seasonal triumph as a misfiring machine that serves to kindly galvanise a set of forwards that might now, as the coach put it, “be worried about keeping their spots because they’ve not played the way they’d have liked”.

It’s Cockerill’s way – and he does so without sounding artful or duplicitous – of keeping expectations from soaring and although in the same breath he said that the team will probably stay much the same as last week’s, the message is that Leicester have already started to demand a greatly improved performance from themselves on Saturday.

“Well, I think we were inaccurate right across the field (against London Irish),” he says. “We didn’t play as well as we’d have liked ball in hand and a lot of that was because ‘Irish’ got into our ball a little bit on the floor. And our lineout and scrum were a bit sloppy.

“It wasn’t good enough for us but you’ve got to take the win and move on. And it’s got to be better this week.

“I can’t see us making too many changes to the team,” added the coach. “You change and you break a combination. It affects you. You don’t change and you’re a bit flat and that affects you too. It (team) will be pretty close to what we’ve been playing for the last three weeks.”

There’s no extended squad announced but the likelihood is that Samoan winger Alesana – “you wouldn’t be tackling him would you” – Tuillagi will come back into the 22 after a five-week suspension, while Martin Corry’s battle-ravaged body has finally given up the ghost.

But with seven forwards and two backline players, Sam Vesty and Dan Hipkiss, on the England squad to face the Barbarians and Argentina, the Leicester mood yesterday was chipper and suitably respectful to Leinster. Still, Cockerill’s criticism of their last performance could not have come without the underlying belief in themselves as a capable outfit.

“Sometimes you go into finals and you’re so desperate for the result that you just don’t perform as well,” said the coach in way of explanation. “And ‘Irish’ were a good team. They played well. They made us work at the breakdown and work at the set-piece. Our players maybe thought we’ll have some dog in us going into the scrum and the lineout and we didn’t have it. So we need to sort out our house against Leinster because if you give them quality ball they will do some damage.”

Not only aware of the Irish connection, Cockerill was instrumental in its construction at Welford Road. But former Leicester players Leo Cullen and Shane Jennings are now certain to be searching elements in Leicester’s deconstruction. Two pairs of insider eyes. Wing Johne Murphy may be involved and Geordan Murphy should again captain Leicester but it’s clear that Cullen and Jennings continue to be held in high esteem.

“Leo (Cullen) is captain of the side and he runs the lineout and he captained the side here. For a non-English rugby captain that’s a big thing,” says the former English hooker. “That’s the status he has here. I think a lot of Leo as a player. I recruited him and Pat (Howard) recruited Jenno (Shane Jennings). He’s a real dog on the floor and he’ll make the breakdown a real mess for us. Huge amount of respect for both of them.

“Leinster did a really good job on Munster. They’ve got four Lions in their team and world-class players across the board. Their doggedness . . . the Harlequins game wasn’t a pretty game but they defended very well. That experience just to keep their composure makes them a better side. The composure and the steel in them has worked very well.”

In that sense the 2005 quarter-final at Lansdowne Road is of little relevance to Saturday’s meeting. Last season the clubs met twice in the pool stages. Leinster won the opening match at a gallop, 22-9 at the RDS and Leicester returned the favour with greater gusto (25-9) in their home fixture. The neutral ground of Murrayfield should challenge both teams.

“Leinster are a better side than they were then (2005) and we’re a very different side to what we were then,” says Cockerill. “I think psychologically we’re pretty even and as teams we’re pretty even.”

Leicester last week won “a tight game” and they “didn’t bottle”. Even Leicester will admit, that’s two good things to go on.