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'A lot of people had written us off before the game'
By PA
Leicester director of rugby Geoff Parling was frustrated that his side failed to capitalise from a strong position in a 23-15 Investec Champions Cup defeat to Leinster at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Despite a hugely-spirited effort against error-ridden opponents, the hosts came away with nothing and remain without points at the bottom of Pool 3 after their opening two fixtures.
Leicester led 15-6 at the break but a missed penalty from Billy Searle and a soft try for Jamison Gibson-Park saw the momentum shift and ultimately – despite being far from their best – the Irish province were deserved winners.
Gibson-Park and Dan Sheehan scored Leinster’s tries, with Harry Byrne kicking three penalties and a conversion. Sam Prendergast also added a conversion.
Wings, Adam Radwan and Ollie Hassell-Collins crossed over for Leicester’s as Searle added a penalty and a conversion.
Parling said: “I’m incredibly proud of the effort as our defence was outstanding, the best performance of the season in that area, but I’m frustrated as the game was there for us.
“A lot of people had written us off before the game and it would have been an incredible day had we won as Leinster haven’t lost a European pool game for four years.
“Going toe-to-toe with them gives our fans hope and belief for the future but we need to double-down on our accuracy.
“The way the competition is set up, we are still in with a chance of progressing.”
It was a different story in the Irish camp as they have now have nine points from their opening two fixtures and that will already be enough for them to progress to the next round of the competition.
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said: “I’m very pleased how we stuck at it, although if we had taken our opportunities, we would have made it easier for ourselves.
“It’s an incredibly-tough place to come and although we played with great intensity, they were very dogged and made life difficult for us.
“We had a lot of early disruption with Tadhg (Furlong) feeling unwell on leaving the hotel and then losing two players in the first 11 minutes.
“We then had a try, harshly ruled out but we showed great composure even though we were trailing 15-6 at half-time.
“We had a lucky break when the ball comes out of the scrum but Jamison (Gibson-Park) finished well and it was a great result for us in the difficult conditions as it was very greasy out there.”
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