O’Connor praises Tigers’ tenacity

Leicester Tigers coach Matt O’Connor has hailed his side's commitment following the 20-13 win over Exeter Chiefs at Welford Road on Saturday.

Leicester claimed their third win on the bounce and O'Connor singled out loose forward Sione Kalamafoni for praise.

“Sione has been brilliant all season,” said O’Connor. “The numbers that he is logging and the minutes he has played have been enormous for us and he has made a real difference to us in that back row and his leadership is fantastic and he doesn’t make errors. He is a class act.

“I thought commitment was at the heart of our victory, we dug in. “It was a really big team effort. They are the champions of England and top of the league so you to charge yourself against those guys.

“Unfortunately for a number of reasons we haven’t been competing and beating those guys consistently and today was a good performance and the four points is massive.

“(It was the most satisfying win of the three) because of the circumstance. There was a lot of grit in the backend with HIAs (Head Injury Assessments) and blokes coming off the field and the disruptions we had before kick-off so from that perspective it is really pleasing that the guys dug in and held on to get a really important four points.”

Meanwhile, Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter was ruing the fact that unlike Leicester, his side didn't take their chances.

“Fair play to Leicester, they forced the killer moments in the game and we didn’t take them. That is what decides closely-fought games,” said Baxter, whose side drop to fourth place in the table.

“We started the game with a lot of intensity and weathered the confrontation pretty well and in the opening quarter we were the team looking to make the breaks and get on the front foot and I have to give the guys credit for that.

“But did we produce an 80-minute performance? Probably not.

“One of the first things we said in training was that, after starting with a 32 phase play against Wasps, Leicester would try to control the speed of the breakdown area. Did we deal with it as well as I would’ve liked? No. Leciester won that battle.”