Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika has reacted to his side’s 17-14 win over Exeter Chiefs.

“It feels good,” Cheika beamed.

“Even if we didn’t get the try to win it, I was pleased with how hard we were willing to work and stay in it there under a fair bit of difficulty.

“We talked about playing the long game early in the week, being prepared to defend for long periods of time if necessary and we did that.“

Tigers came home strong, but Cheika says there was no surprises the Tigers game, particularly we ball-in-hand, didn’t flow early on.

“It was Ollie Chessum’s first game. He didn’t have any time in pre-season.”

“Jack (van Poortvliet), Ben (Youngs) – our drivers haven’t had a lot of time so as I said it was about digging in and playing the long game and we did that.

“Credit to the opposition, they held the ball well and put us under pressure at times but sometimes defence can help you not lose a game, as much as win a game.

“The momentum, the crowd had a lot of energy there late in the game but we never panicked and gave ourselves an opportunity at the end.”