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More to Tigers than kicking game, says Stuart Lancaster

Handre Pollard in action for Tigers against Edinburgh
Handre Pollard in action for Tigers against Edinburgh

Stuart Lancaster doesn't see Leicester as just a kicking team and believes they have more to their game ahead of Friday's Champions Cup quarter-final clash.

The Tigers kicked 41 times from hand making 1,153 metres from that tactic during their 16-6 victory over Edinburgh in the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16.

Ahead of Friday night’s tie at the Aviva Stadium, Lancaster says the English champions have more strings to their bow.

"I think it’s probably unfair to say they kick everything all the time," the senior coach told RTÉ Sport.

"I’ve certainly shown the lads plenty of moments where they move the ball and played a more expansive games.

"Richard Wigglesworth has done a great job in the interim role, he’s tried to evolve their attack.

"Handre Pollard’s playing really well now, they’ve got Dan Kelly coming back and I’m certain he’ll feature against us, he’s a high-quality player in midfield.

"They have lots of options in the back three as well so whilst they are traditional in their mindset of playing the kicking game and the set-piece game, I think there’s more to them than that."

James Ryan and co will be hoping to make home advantage count on Good Friday

Leicester, winners of the competition in 2001 and 2002, overcame a dogged Edinburgh outfit in difficult conditions at Welford Road.

"They looked like they had worse weather than us and the pitch didn’t hold up quite as well as ours did," said James Lowe, who helped Leinster to a 30-15 win over Ulster in a rain-lashed Aviva.

"They dictated a lot of the play. They are a very abrasive team that wants to challenge you up front when it comes to lineout maul and they’ve got a few nippy 9s and Pollard at 10. [Anthony] Watson’s pretty good as well. It’s going to be a nice battle."

Lancaster (above) added: "It was very similar to our game, playing in pretty difficult conditions and they matched the conditions better than Edinburgh.

"Their kicking game is excellent, they are very good in the air, they pride themselves on their set-piece defence and their back-field defending in their own 22.

"They were probably just more accurate over the 80 minutes.

"They’ll be delighted with the win because Edinburgh, when you looked at the side on paper, and we only played them a couple of weeks ago and we know how strong Edinburgh were."

Watch Leinster v Leicester Tigers in the Heineken Champions Cup on Good Friday night on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1

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