Geoff Parling: 'The changing room was the calmest changing room you could think of'

Leicesgter Tigers head coach Geoff Parling felt the way his players problem-solved at the setpiece was the key to a resounding 28-7 win over champions Northampton Saints.

The Tigers came from behind by achieving total dominance off the back of a formidable scrum in a one-sided second half as they ran in four unanswered tries to secure a victory that took them to second the Gallagher PREM.

Saints led 7-3 at half-time at a sodden Mattioli Woods Welford Road but once the Tigers got a grip at the scrum there was only one winner.

Parling said: “I thought the way the players problem-solved around the set-piece, which was an issue early in the game, was brilliant.

“It (the set-piece) didn’t function early on and I think we were maybe slow to adapt to some of the officiating there.

“We then obviously got on the front foot and we showed our power. We showed our application to that side of the game.

“The changing room [at half-time] was, honestly, the calmest changing room you could think of, and we didn’t have lots of tactical messages. We just felt if we were a bit more accurate in what we did, we’d gain some ascendancy.

“The good thing about this group is we’ll go away and we’ll still review as if we’d lost, and there will still be things we’ll get much better at.

“I’m just really pleased with the emotional energy that they threw into that game.”

James Pater’s early converted try fired Saints ahead and Freddie Steward’s penalty was the only reply from the Tigers before the break.

But Leicester hit the front through Jamie Blamire’s try early in the second half and then pressed home their advantage. Further tries from Cameron Henderson, Finn Carnduff and Steward wrapped up a resounding victory.

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson admitted the game had got away from his side “around the set-piece” and “around the discipline”.

He added: “We gave them opportunities in our 22 and fundamentally we didn’t fire enough back at them.

“We gave penalties away in the first half as well, but I thought our reaction to them was a lot stronger in the first half and it’s hard to really place where that dissipated.

“I thought we were in it as a scrap. Obviously, they had some set-piece dominance that hurt us and that put them into our 22 and gave them a ton of energy.

“In the first half I wasn’t surprised to see us react in the way we did. In the second half we didn’t seem to have that same buzz about us.”