Friday 22 March 2019 23:42, UK
Geordan Murphy says that Leicester Tigers need to "get more" out of themselves if they are to successfully navigate through a tight finish to the Gallagher Premiership season.
Murphy's side fell at the hands of their derby-rivals Northampton Saints on Friday night and the defeat means that they sit in 10th position in the table.
With five rounds of the regular season remaining, Leicester will look to pick up vital victories over their remaining opponents - Exeter Chiefs, Newcastle Falcons, Bristol Bears, Harlequins and Bath.
In total the outfit have won just six of their 17 domestic meetings this season. They are just six points ahead of Worcester Warriors in 11th place and nine points ahead of bottom-placed Newcastle, before the duo play their respective round 17 matches.
"We need to drive forward and get more out of ourselves, me included," said head coach Murphy.
"We want to be competing at the top end of the league, but we are right down at the bottom and in the mire. It's going to be tight. We have struggled with our confidence all season.
"We had some chances in the first half, but we bombed them. Saints did a very good job of slowing our ball down and I thought Heinrich Brussow and Teimana Harrison were excellent at that. It bordered right on the edge of legality, but they got away with it.
"It was a very strange game. We actually started well but then we got a yellow card, Saints raised the tempo and scored three quick tries, and we were chasing the game. We knew it was going to be a mountain to climb at half-time."
Leicester had plenty of first-half possession, but did little with it as they turned around 20-3 down.
Collins led the Leicester defence a merry dance as he raced clear and found Reinach, who opened the scoring before Ford responded with a penalty. Reinach then did brilliantly to steal a turnover and as he attempted to play, Williams played the ball on the floor and was yellow-carded.
Biggar kicked a penalty and Northampton took advantage as Collins scored twice within six minutes.
Three more penalties from Biggar and a yellow card for Cole when the game resumed meant Leicester were never going to come back. They grabbed late consolations through Ford and Youngs but were well beaten.
"We set up the Rob Horne match against Leicester at Twickenham and we were terribly disappointed with the way we played," said Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd.
"I thought we disrespected that occasion. This fixture last season was when Rob had his career-ending injury so there was a little of an extra bird on the shoulder for Rob. That was part of the motivation."
Boyd also issued a positive update on England captain Dylan Hartley's knee injury. The Saints hooker was pitchside at Welford Road but has not played since December.
"Dylan went to the specialist a couple of days ago. It was really positive," Boyd said.
"I'm not sure when, but I'm really optimistic Dylan will play some football before the end of the season. He might be three to six weeks, but he's in a really good space."
