Leicester Tigers head coach, Michael Cheika has reacted to Tigers 31-7 victory against Scarlets Rugby at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Tigers didn’t concede in the second-half and showed plenty of physicality in their performance to earn their tries.

Cheika was happy with the effort and the response after a patchy first period.

“There’s still a long way to go and a lot of improvements we need to make but I feel like we’re moving ahead nicely,” he said.

“We’re trying to be consistent with what we want to do. Our game planning isn’t just about going ‘game-to-game’ but how we want to look as a team and that is what I’ve wanted to see in these games.

“There’s a balance between trying to get everyone to match fitness and put a few new things into place. Probably the areas that we’ve focused on in training have been prominent and that’s shown me a few of the areas I need to work on hard before we get to round one.

“We have the time. We’re starting to get more and more players back every week and we saw a few of them play today. We’ll have a few more in the next few weeks and the week after is round one so I feel like it’s coming along nicely.”

Cheika was grateful for the large turnout of supporters on what was a wet Leicestershire day.

Asked about being cheered on by the supporters when taking his seat in the coaches box, Cheika said:

“I’ll tell you what, I’m a lot more comfortable being here on the home team then I am being on the away team that’s for sure.

“There’s been a really good feeling, I love the blend of the traditions that are here as well as the new parts of the Tigers.

“You can see it in the ground itself, it’s a wonderful place to play footy and I’m glad it’s my home ground.”