Michael Cheika admits Leicester Tigers a work in progress after comeback win over Gloucester - 'We're still building'

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Leicester Tigers climbed to third in the early Gallagher Premiership standings with a dramatic win over Gloucester Rugby on Sunday, live on TNT Sports. Despite a fourth win from five games, head coach Michael Cheika admitted there are improvements to be made. He did, however, praise his team's "excellent" response in the second half following a tricky opening period.

Michael Cheika's Leicester Tigers beat Gloucester Rugby 29-26

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Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika praised his side's character after a dramatic comeback win over Gloucester Rugby in the Gallagher Premiership.

But he admitted his team remain a work in progress after a poor first-half display saw them trailing by 11 points going into the break.

Gloucester's Max Llewellyn scored a superb hat-trick but it was not enough for the visitors, who succumbed to a second-half fightback by Leicester.

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Handre Pollard, Josh Bassett and Dan Kelly inspired the home team to a fourth victory in five Premiership matches.

Cheika revealed he was "honest" with his players at half-time, while conscious that the team are still adapting to changes.

"You have to be honest with the players at half-time, about where they are in the game and what we're seeing up above," he said.

"You're never handed anything in this game and the response after half-time was excellent. We probably didn't kick on the way we wanted to but it's not easy in games like that.

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"They showed good character to come through there in a bit of adversity.

"Obviously, we're still building. We've made big changes in the way we're playing and where it can come and go is where you have a habit of playing a certain way, and when the heat comes on it's natural to fall back into that way, especially early on in the process.

"It's nothing serious. I like that we've been in a few situations this season and found a way to fix things and win the game."

Gloucester head coach George Skivington, meanwhile, claimed his side did enough to win.

"I feel like it was an opportunity missed," he said. "We have had a disjointed week going into the game with a lot of players pulling out, which has created opportunities for players like Ioan Jones on the wing, but maybe we didn't quite connect all the dots.

"I feel we had enough out there to win the game and it is frustrating, because if we were absolutely on it we probably could have won it.

"But you are playing Leicester at Welford Road, we have pushed them right to the wire and arguably with a little bit of accuracy at the end we could have nicked it or drawn.

"At the start of the year we would have taken two points coming here, but in the game, despite all the errors we made in the second half, I still thought we could have won it."

Leicester Tigers are next in action away at league leaders Saracens on Saturday, live on TNT Sports. Gloucester, meanwhile, take on bottom-of-the-league Newcastle Falcons.

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