Round-up: Cockerill crows over Leicester's resilience

Leicester’s Manu Tuilagi tries to break through against Treviso (Getty Images)

The Leicester Tigers coach, Richard Cockerill, felt everything was going against his side before they came from behind to beat Treviso 14-13 in Heineken Cup Pool Two on Saturday. Trailing by six points in the latter stages, Leicester appeared to be heading out of Europe, but Cockerill was delighted with the resilience they showed.

"Everything went against us really. We scored a really good try in the first half, but somehow we upset the referee and he was against us for a fair bit. You could easily let all those factors get on top of you and throw in the towel; but we didn't, we stuck to our guns," Cockerill said.

After another closely-fought contest, the Northampton coach, Jim Mallinder, hailed his pack for their part in a shock 10-9 away win against Pool Four leaders Ulster.

"The set-piece went really well, as did the breakdown," said Mallinder, whose side had lost 25-6 to Ulster eight days before. "Last week we couldn't get any quick ball and we didn't get on the front foot at all. We got a lot of criticism from various places and I think as a team we were determined to put that right."

Rob Baxter, the Exeter head coach, will put European competition to the back of his mind for the time being after his side completed the double over Scarlets with a 30-20 home win.

"The next two Heineken Cup games [away to Clermont and home to Leinster] can go to bed for a while now because we have some very important Premiership rugby to take care of," said Baxter, whose team lie third in Pool Five, a point behind second-placed Leinster.

"If we don't take care of that we could be in danger of letting the season fall flat a little because we are in a nice place now, ticking along quite well, showing some consistency and improvement in some areas but getting a little dented in others."