Gallagher Premiership Rugby: Stuart Hogg backs Leicester Tigers to build on derby win over Northampton Saints

Stuart Hogg believes we saw what Leicester Tigers are all about as they claimed derby bragging rights over Northampton Saints to pick up just their second win from six in this season’s Gallagher Premiership Rugby.

In front of a raucous home crowd at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium, the Tigers were on the front foot almost from start to finish in a 26-17 victory that arrested a run of back-to-back defeats.

The hosts led at the break thanks to the boot of World Cup winner Handre Pollard before wave after wave of pressure eventually told as Francois van Wyk and Hanro Liebenberg powered over the line for tries that sealed a deserved win.

“We saw in the second half exactly what they’re about,” Hogg said on TNT Sports. “They went to their power game, they used their kicking game, their line-out, their scrum was incredible, and they took their opportunities.

“Two tries in the second half, Liebenberg in the 72nd minute, it was game over after that.

“That's what they’re about, the power game, they got the crowd on their feet, the atmosphere started to become even better than it had been and they fully deserved their win in the end.”

While a step in the right direction, the result still leaves Leicester eighth in the table, 13 points behind Sale Sharks.

But Hogg thinks such a strong performance in such an important game will provide Tigers with a platform to build on going forward.

“That will give them that boost, we talked about it pre-game that this was massive for a number of reasons. For it being a derby, for it being for momentum into the season,” Hogg added.

“For these guys to leave here now with four points in the bag, a proper kick up the backside they potentially needed coming in that game, they’ll have a huge amount of confidence going forward.

“That’s them a third of the way through, now it's time to build momentum again and again and again.”

Leicester will hope to win consecutive games for the first time this season when they travel to take on Gloucester next week.

Back-rower Tommy Reffell was a standout performer for Leicester, especially in the first half, and was deservedly named Player of the Match.

The 24-year-old was a menace at the breakdown as Northampton struggled to get into their rhythm and routinely found their attacking platform suffocated.

Reffell admitted that was part of the game plan and paid tribute to Tigers fans in the aftermath.

"From the start of the week we said how big this game is, not just for us as a team, by as a community, as a Leicester fan base," Reffell said. "We want to do it for our supporters because they’re with us every week.

"We know the sort of team they are, they play with great width and at speed so it was all about slowing them down anyway we could, whether that be time in attack or work on the floor, so we thought about that a lot in the week.

"We're not where we want to be yet but it's a good step forward today. We keep going now, keep working as a team to get where we want and challenging the best."

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