Away win delights Cockerill
September 12 2009
Director of Rugby Richard Cockerill welcomed Leicester's first Guinness Premiership win of the season - but insisted there is much more to come.
Jeremy Staunton kicked Leicester to a 15-9 victory over Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop as the defending champions bounced back from last weekend's surprise defeat at Sale.
Cockerill is not concerned that Leicester are yet to score a try, particularly with Staunton, the club's third choice fly-half, and inside centre Anthony Allen forming a new partnership.
"We have had to work with the combination of Staunton and Allen, who weren't with us last year. That takes time to bed in and the accuracy is sometimes not what we would like it to be," said Cockerill.
"But you lose Toby Flood, Sam Vesty, Aaron Mauger and Alesana Tuilagi to injury and you are not going to be as fluid as you would like.
"People remember how we finished last season but it is not about being in championship-winning form now. We have to grind out the wins or the bonus points.
"With all respect to Staunton, any team down to their third choice 10 is going to be a little bit different.
"We needed to win because two away games is a tough start. We didn't play particularly well last week and two defeats on the bounce at the start would not have been great.
"Not scoring tries in two games is not great for us but it is about getting results. Last year we won five games away from home all year and we have one under the belt now.
"The point we got at Sale last week will be massive come the end of the season and Quins are a good side. They will turn teams over here.
"I thought the boys battled really well and kept their composure when we needed to.
"When we went 9-6 behind the tide was starting to turn but we got to grips with the game again."
Harlequins had a brutal game for the taking when the moved 9-6 ahead with three penalties from Nick Evans after Leicester number eight Jordan Crane had been sin-binned.
But they could not close out the victory and Assistant Coach Tony Diprose explained that the Tigers long periods of attacks played a factor in defeat.
"Leicester forced us to defend for long periods and that probably told in the end," he said.
"If we want to play with tempo we need to hold onto the ball for longer.
"We didn't close out the game. We went 9-6 up with 20 minutes to go but we didn't quite get our basics right and we lost a couple of scrums."