Tigers Coach Howard Hands it to His Forwards

Howard continued: "I expected a contest up front, but I thought our ball presentation was excellent; the way the eight and nine combined to get the ball out of the scrums worked well. Normally when you lose two high-quality props it hits you hard, but Alex continues to play well and Darren impressed after a long lay-off - I thought the two of them did very well."

Aside from the performances of Moreno and Morris, Howard also had time to praise hooker George Chuter, as well as inside centre Daryl Gibson, the latter having returned to the side after a two-week injury lay-off.

"Daryl's in reasonable nick, I thought he played pretty well, picking up from where he left off against Bath," said Tigers' coach.

"But if Andy Robinson's looking for somebody to challenge Steve Thompson he needn't look further than George Chuter ... This is the Heineken Cup, it's close enough to the Six Nations; they have to have a serious look at George, who offers something everywhere. Look, I'm not complaining, I don't want to lose him, but I think they need to have a serious look at his merits. Chutes is a very good player and I'd like him closer to the mark than he is at the moment."

And with his forwards playing well and his backs running into space, Howard added ahead of next week's Stade Français clash: "I thought at times our execution could've been better, and that's obviously the disappointing part, but I thought we utilised our turnover ball well. We scored a few opportunistic tries, but if you want to do well in this competition you need to win at home and score four tries.

"We know that it'll be a different ball game next week and we know how hard it's going to be. We're going there to win; they're a fantastic side and playing really well, but we've got to rise to the occasion. This is a tough competition, you have to go five and one (wins) to get through to the quarter-finals and it's a great challenge."