Cockerill hails Tigers toughness

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The victory took the Tigers back to the top of the Guinness Premiership, but it came despite the loss of England prop Julian White. He was sent off for punching his international colleague Andrew Sheridan after 23 minutes, but they managed to shore up their scrum and swept to victory by scoring three second-half tries.

"We just had to keep the belief that we could still play," Cockerill said. "Sometimes it can affect you psychologically when you go a man down."

He added: "We have a good scrum and we want to use it as a weapon and Julian's physicality is a key.

"You have to take off a back-row forward which leaves you short in other areas. But the players have to take the credit because they played off their wits a lot of the time.

"They did a lot of things that we don't practise because of the scenario we were in. I thought, considering what went on during the game, the boys were fantastic.

"We said at half-time that it was all about doing your jobs as best you could do and looking at the scoreboard at the end and see what the score was.

"It was that sort of day and credit lies with the players because the spirit and camaraderie they showed today was second to none.

"It was about the players, the club and the supporters and the boys fronted up."