Cockerill hails Leicester scrum

Leicester head coach Richard Cockerill paid tribute to the Tigers pack after Friday's stunning 22-17 win over world champions South Africa at Welford Road.

"Our scrum was immense," said the ex-England hooker. "Rugby can get quite scientific in its analysis these days.

"Sometimes you just need 15 blokes to come here and roll their sleeves up - and that's what we did."

South Africa assistant coach Dick Muir concurred, adding: "We were given a bit of a lesson at the scrums."

The Springboks suffered a dismal start to their northern hemisphere tour as the Premiership champions overcame the handicap of missing England internationals Tom Croft, Lewis Moody, Jordan Crane, Dan Hipkiss and Louis Deacon as well as another eight injured players.

"I don't think I've ever seen a South Africa pack as bad as that"

"I'd have to take my hat off to the players. I read some criticism this morning about the fixture and the two sides that were put out," said Cockerill.

"It was all about us tonight and the facilities we're trying to provide. Maybe South Africa are a little shell-shocked that club rugby can be like that. The spirit here is second to none and I don't know where it comes from.

"We scrummaged for our lives and that was a deciding factor in many regards. In the end, we wanted it a bit more than they did. We were outweighed considerably by the Springboks, they've got two huge locks in there, but we took it to them."

Tigers' Aaron Mauger, who played at fly-half, savoured "a huge team performance" from Leicester.

"The talk and the composure was outstanding from the young guys," he said.

"The atmosphere was awesome, especially down on our 22. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the club and it's awesome that we came out on the right side of it."

Muir, who is in temporary charge before the arrival of Peter de Villiers, named nine uncapped players in his matchday squad and admitted their strategy had not paid off.

"We just move on. We came over here with an experiment and perhaps it didn't come off as planned," he said.

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" What a game and a result I will remember for years to come "

"I don't think I've ever seen a South Africa pack as bad as that, especially from a coaching perspective.

"Hats off to the Tigers. They were incredibly strong in that department, so we've got to go back to the drawing board."

The former Springboks centre backed his players to improved when they take on France, Italy and Ireland.

"Nobody likes losing. When you take a squad like this and have a short turnaround maybe you're not as well prepared as you might be," he said.

"It will probably cause the guys to be a little bit more determined. When you're on the top of the pile there's a lot of sides who want to knock you off, so that's the territory we've created for ourselves."

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