Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika and club captain Julián Montoya have reacted to the Investec Champions Cup home victory over Hollywoodbets Sharks.
"I thought we started off looking for a bit too much, didn’t set the game up how we wanted to. We’ve been looking at our attack a bit more and sometimes when you do that you can almost go for too much but that’s a process you have to go through to then pull yourself back and say ‘ok, this is what works’.
"We quickly got a handle on what was required around the physicality and intensity of the game. Once we started to understand that we got value from it: the maul try, Ollie Hassell-Collins’ try. Some might say that was lucky there but it’s not luck because you’ve got to chase. If we had had another person there we’d have had double the luck.
"In the second half, I thought we defended quite well. Not much went our way and I thought there was a bit of craziness around the ruck but we defended well and it was important not to give away a bonus point out there."
Asked about how it felt to make his first start for the club following the conclusion of the Autumn Internationals, Montoya was delighted.
"I love playing for this team and being back home after nine weeks. The atmosphere was unbelievable as always so thank you to everyone who came today.
"I agree with everything Michael said; we’re building on our intensity and physicality and today we brought that. We want to be more consistent through the 80 minutes, that’s what we aim for but we had a really good week of preparation and we delivered on what we worked on during the week.
"We need to get better, as always, but we have to enjoy this win and these points at home. It was great to see Cam Henderson playing again so congratulations to him, he’s worked really hard.
"It was a great day for us."
Attention now turns to the side's final home game of 2024, a return to Gallagher Premiership action where Leicester welcome high-flying Bristol Bears.
Ahead of the festive fixture at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, Cheika was asked about what next Saturday's clash will bring.
"I spoke to the lads inside just now and I think it’s been a great few weeks for us.
"We fell in a bit of a crevasse, we were stuck a little bit and you then have to work you way up. We’ve worked hard on that without panicking, across all three games and that’s important now to launch into next week’s game.
"I think they’re toward the top of the Premiership so that’s going to be a huge game for us."
Finally, asked about working with Montoya and his leadership of the team, Cheika added:
"It’s good, we haven’t shared a lot of club games together yet due to internationals so we should have a good run at that now.
"As a person, as a player, as a captain, there’s no better in the game."
