Meyer pleased with Tigers' blitz
October 18 2008
Leicester Tigers Head Coach Heyneke Meyer watched his side take pole position in Pool Three and said the opening two games of the Heineken Cup have been a 'great experience'.
The South African said he was "proud" of his players as they ran riot at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo to run in nine tries in a 60-16 rout of Italian side Treviso.
After last week's 12-6 home win over many people's pre-tournament favourites the Ospreys, Leicester opened their shoulders and hit top form to the delight of their coach.
"I have really enjoyed the Heineken Cup because it is much quicker and the referees are not as tight at the breakdown," said Meyer.
"It means there is more open play and you are allowed to show what you can do with the ball. The first two games of the Heineken Cup have been a great experience.
"The gameplan was always to start well and bring some fresh guys on in the last 20 minutes to round it off. In the second half, we went back to the basics, got some structure and opened it up.
"We did well late on and scored three or four good tries. We are improving every single week.
"We got a few breaks and played very well late on. A lot of the other guys played well off the bench too. It means a lot to the team.
"The forwards were superb too. As a forwards coach, I was very happy with the pushover try -you don't see pushover tries very often these days with the ELVs. It was an all-round good performance and I am very proud of the guys."
Leicester withstood a fierce Treviso comeback before breaking the shackles with 43 unanswered points in the last 28 minutes of the contest.
Johne Murphy was the main beneficiary of the gaps in the Treviso backline as he completed a hat-trick with the final try of the game in injury time.
"It was ages ago that I scored my last hat-trick, I think it was at college," he said.
"There was some great work by the rest of the boys and I just had to finish it off."
He was not the only one enjoying the fun as two of Tigers' England players Jordan Crane and Toby Flood bagged two apiece.
"It was tight for the first 50 minutes but pulled away late on," said Crane.
"We have played a few games recently where we haven't got the results for our efforts and it was nice today to come away with a few tries."
A penalty try and one for Geordan Murphy made up Tigers' tally with Treviso skipper Ben De Jager grabbing the Italians' only score of the game early in the second period.