O’Connor hails return of vital Tigers pair for crunch fixture

LEICESTER boss Matt O’Connor has welcomed the return of ‘world-class operators’ Manu Tuilagi and Matt Toomua for today’s crucial European Champions Cup clash against Munster. Both players have recovered from knee problems to team up in midfield, with England centre Tuilagi making a first appearance since early September.

Tuilagi and Australia international Toomua have rarely featured together since Toomua arrived at the club last year, but they now appear for a Pool Four encounter at Welford Road that Leicester realistically must win to maintain quarter-final hopes. A 33-10 defeat against Munster in Limerick last weekend left Tigers five points behind today’s opponents, and they cannot afford to lose any further ground.

‘Matt and Manu have been training hard, they are world-class operators and it’s great to have them back,’ Leicester head coach O’Connor said ahead of the game. ‘We prepared well for last weekend, but we didn’t deliver on the day and were beaten by a very committed Munster side. Now we are looking at a big reaction at home this week. Pool Four is the tightest of all the groups in the competition, and all four teams still have everything to play for.’

ULSTER director of rugby Les Kiss was a happy man after his side’s six-try 52-24 bonus-point victory over Harlequins which secured second spot in Pool One of the European Champions Cup.

Back-to-back wins over the Quins have put Ulster in a position to potentially qualify with two rounds remaining though, even at this stage, their best chance may be as a runnerup.

‘We were anxious to get out there and finish the deal,’ said Kiss. ‘And the boys wanted to make a major statement in this game in front of the fans. It certainly was a spectacle that’s for sure. We have a chance to do something here, but La Rochelle (the pool leaders) are the form team in Europe.

‘We opened them up nicely but we didn’t capitalise and we shouldn’t give a team like that a chance as they back their ability. They had a lot of youngsters and they told them just to play and they hurt us a few times.’

Ulster only led 16-12 at half-time before pushing on late in the game and Kiss admitted he was frustrated at some of their defensive lapses.

‘It was a bit too loose at times but it was good to get 52 points,’ he said. ‘The key focus for us was to concentrate on the basics of the game.

‘I think we’d just got a bit away from that (in the first half) and I thought we were a little bit lateral at times.’