Meyer looking for sharp improvement
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:10
New Leicester Tigers head coach Heyneke Meyer says he has learned a lot about his squad from the opening match of their pre-season programme in Biarritz on Friday.
Tigers scored five tries but were beaten 37-35 and Meyer said he was "very happy" that the players were so disappointed in defeat against a side fine-tuning their preparations for the Top 14 season which starts next week.
"I have a better understanding and better knowledge now of what the guys can do and where we want to go," said Meyer after his first match in charge.
"The game could have gone either way and we were disappointed by defeat. Even at the end I thought we could have kept the ball and another score would come.
"We created five tries, which is great to see, but there are lots of areas to improve on and we will be working hard to do that.
"The aim is always to win but also an aim here was to play our game and use the things we have been working on in training.
"We set high standards and the players were disappointed in defeat. I like that. They could have looked for excuses, but I am happy that the guys were disappointed that we did not win."
First half tries from Sam Vesty, Ben Woods and Aaron Mauger had given Tigers a 21-14 interval lead and Will Hurrell added two touchdowns in the second half before a 78th-minute try from Ben Denoyelle gave victory to the hosts against a Tigers side a man down in the final stages after a yellow card to Dan Cole.
Woods and Julien Dupuy made their Tigers debuts, with Santiago Bonorino making an appearance in the second half. Meyer also called upon the services of a number of development squad players, giving a first start to lock Calum Green and flank Dan Hemingway.
Academy products Hurrell, Rob Bell, Josh Goldpink and Will Lawson also gained some valuable experience as replacements.
"We had a lot of 18 and 19-year-olds on the field at the end, and we had already taken off the captain and vice-captain to get game-time for as many of the squad as possible," said Meyer.
"I thought the youngsters put up their hands to play for Leicester in the future. All of those guys will learn from those situations.
"I prefer tough games away from home at this stage because you are under pressure and you want to see who can handle the pressure and who can't."
Meyer and his squad now turn their attentions to Saturday's trip to Swansea to face Heineken Cup rivals the Ospreys before the final pre-season fixture against Western Force at Welford Road on Saturday, August 30.
With thanks to tigers.co.uk
