Backs coach Burke hails Leicester spirit as they snatch dramatic draw with Saints

LATE RALLY - Leicester Tigers, with banned director of rugby Richard Cockerill watching from the window in the cabin behind the posts, score their dramatic late try against Saints (Picture: Linda Dawson)

Backs coach Paul Burke praised the never-say-die attitude of his players after Aviva Premiership champions Leicester came back from the dead to grab a draw at the end of a titanic battle at home to Saints.

Leicester trailed 19-9 with six minutes left, but England fly-half Toby Flood kicked a penalty and then converted a fabulous try from flanker Ed Slater to salvage two points.

Leicester even had a chance to win the game but messed up a scrum, an area they had dominated, near the Saints line.

Burke, who was in charge of Tigers as director of rugby Richard Cockerill is serving a touchline ban, said: “Our accuracy for the first 60 minutes was poor.

“But the attitude of the players to get themselves back into the game, play in the right areas and squeeze them at the set pieces, was the key to our resurgence in the last 10 or 15 minutes.

“That was the plan for most of the game but unfortunately we did not put it into practice.

“But credit must be given to the players for that back end of the game, and I felt we could still have won when we got a scrum five metres out.

“With the way our scrummage was going I was disappointed to see the ball come out of the back.

“We had opportunities but our error count was too high.

“It’s an area we have to look at because our error count in the last three of four games has been too high.”

Leicester’s last-ditch try means they stay in third place, on the same points as second placed Northampton.

It also stopped Saints claiming their first win at Welford Road since February 2007 and extended their Leicester’s unbeaten run against their great rivals to nine games.