Hipkiss hopes Tigers will push on

Having lost one and drawn one of their opening three fixtures, the 2001 and 2002 European Champions went into the Round 4 encounter knowing defeat would almost certainly bring their title aspirations to a premature end.

Last season's beaten finalists had fallen to a 40-30 reverse at the hands of Clermont last time out but, even though Hipkiss admits the performance wasn't perfect, their narrow victory this time around means two wins from their final two games could still see them top the group.

"It was a very important win," said Hipkiss, after tries from Anthony Allen and Scott Hamilton guided Leicester to a 20-15 victory at Welford Road.

"We've restored some pride to a certain extent but we're still making stupid errors and perhaps forcing things. We could have been a little bit smarter. But that will come.

"We're still a fairly young side. If you look at No9, 10 and 12, they're all 24 or under. We think we can move on from here.

"If we'd have lost that it would have been almost impossible for us to have gone through. We've given ourselves a chance to qualify and that's all you can do."

Leicester face Viadana when the Heineken Cup restarts in January, before traveling to the Liberty Stadium to take on the Ospreys in an intriguing match up that could see either, neither or both teams make it through to the last eight.

But while the Ospreys know that they could lose against Clermont in France in Round 5 and still qualify, Leicester are aware that anything less than back-to-back victories is likely to see them exit European competition earlier than the Welford Road faithful have come to expect.

"You don't know how things are going to go from now on but we know that we need to win every game we play in - and that's not a bad situation to be in," added Hipkiss.

"We lost in the first game to Munster three seasons ago and we then got the result we needed over there in the last game, and that's the sort of performance we're going to need.

"Knowing that you need to win makes it easier in terms of mentality going into a game. You don't want to go into a game thinking you could get away with a losing bonus point here or we could maybe draw this match. We know exactly what we need and we've got to be a little bit more ruthless and kick on from here.

"We'll go away and try and perform in the league and see if we can kick on when the Heineken Cup restarts."