Tigers beat the four-time European champions to top Heineken Cup Pool 2 and qualify for a quarter-final away to Toulon.
“Those last few minutes, with the crowd on their feet, it was a magical moment,” said Tigers director of rugby Cockerill who has been to five Heineken Cup finals with the club as player and coach.
“These occasions are great. We had the most successful team in the tournament’s history, traditionally the strongest club in France, for the last game in the pool with a quarter-final place for the winners in front of a full-house crowd. Those occasions don’t come up very often.
“Those last few minutes, the grandstand finish, when you’re defending for your lives, you remember those.
“This team wanted to make its own history. Today they knocked Toulouse out of the Heineken Cup, won a really tough pool and made it into the quarter-finals.
“We beat them here in 1997 and people are still talking about it. Hopefully in 15 years’ time people will be talking about this game.”
Toby Flood kicked the Tigers points, gaining a nine-point advantage by half-time and restricting Toulouse to one score in the second half and defending manfully in the snow during the closing stages.
“It was always going to be tough because of the weather,” said Cockerill. “They missed kicks at goal, which was fortunate for us, but the effort and attitude to keep going was great.
“There are some big clubs haven’t made it through and that just shows what quality we have in this squad.
"We’ve got three English clubs in the quarter-finals now which shows the Aviva Premiership is a strong competition.”
Tigers were ranked sixth in the eight quarter-final qualifiers, with Toulon gaining home advantage as they were ranked third.
“Toulon are a fantastic team, it is going to be a huge event for us and a huge day in Leicester Tigers history,” said Cockerill.
Dates, times and venues for the quarter-finals will be confirmed shortly by tournament organisers ERC and their broadcast partners.
