Defeat could be 'terminal' for Tigers
Richard Cockerill believes Leicester Tigers' 3-15 defeat against the Scarlets could be 'terminal' for his side's chances of reaching the knock-out stages of the European Champions Cup.
Having opened their Pool Three campaign in fine style with a home win over Ulster, they had hoped to make it two successive victories to maintain pressure on double champions Toulon.
However, while Toulon went to Belfast and picked up a vital away victory to follow up their home win over the Scarlets in Round One, the Tigers ran into a Scarlets team determined not to go down again after their battling performance in the south of France.
"That defeat could be terminal for us," said Cockerill, whose side conceded 20 turn overs and 10 penalties.
"We now have to face Toulon back-to-back and they are massive games.
"It was important for us to come here and get something out of this match.
"We came here to win, but got nothing.
"The Scarlets got amongst us and unsettled us. But we should have played better than that.
"We didn't execute and we got exactly what we deserved, which is tough in a competition like this.
"We turned over the ball too easily and we gave them two very soft tries.
"We started very well, but we spent 25 minutes of the first half making error after error and that gave them energy to feed off.
"You can't make that many errors in such an important game. It is very disappointing and I just wish I had an explanation for the amount of balls we dropped for no particular reason.
