Tom Youngs believes Leicester Tigers are starting to learn under Geordan Murphy ahead of daunting Ulster trip

Saturday’s victory over rivals Northampton left Youngs proud of the defensive display that suggests Leicester can resolve their issues with keeping tries

Tom Youngs took heart out of Leicester's victory over Northampton (Getty)

After the disruption of Matt O’Connor’s early exit and the “emotional” disappointment of defeat against Worcester Warriors, Tom Youngs believes Leicester Tigers are starting to find their feet under Geordan Murphy’s guidance ahead of the new European campaign.

Leicester Tigers were very much a big part of Rob Horne’s Twickenham tribute match, having been Northampton’s opponents on that unfortunate day in April that changed his life forever. But they were also more than happy to play the part of the spoilers, with Leicester claiming the bragging rights in the first East Midlands derby of the season with a performance that wasn’t exactly eye-catching, but by far their most disciplined and accurate of the season.

Having haemorrhaged tries this season – 27 in total that remains the most in the Premiership after six rounds – Youngs believes Saturday’s victory was their best defensive performance by far since O’Connor departed and Murphy took over back at the start of September, and the Leicester captain believes it’s the small steps that he can see the team making every week that should stand them in good stead for the future.

“I think you’ve got to saviour those moments,” Youngs said. “Being a derby day, it’s great to win them, but I think there’s something bigger than just a game with Rob Horne and stuff like that. Looking at how we played I thought our D (defence) was very good, we’ve been criticised and we’ve criticised ourselves on our D and it just shows that Brett (Deacon, defence coach) is doing a great job and things are just starting to come through, people are starting to understand the philosophies and the bits we want to get right.”

The victory in front of 40,413 fans lifts Leicester to fifth in the table and, they hope, away from the relegation dogfight that loomed large after the opening week of the season. That’s unlikely to be the end of the ‘R word’ rearing its head this season though, with just four points between them and eighth-placed Bath and a further six covering the rest of the league to 12th-placed Sale.

But the Premiership now goes on hold, with the return of the Heineken Champions Cup next weekend upping the ante, magnifying the opponents and adding a competition that Leicester have some harrowing memories of.

Youngs admitted Leicester weren't happy with their defence (Getty)

Last season Leicester mustered just one victory, two losing bonus point and a 39-0 humbling to Castres a year after suffering a 38-0 defeat in Munster. This time around, Murphy’s men start the campaign with one of the most difficult away days in Europe as they head to the Kingspan Stadium to face Ulster on Saturday night, and from experience alone Youngs knows it’s a different kettle of fish.

“It’s not been great,” Youngs says of Leicester’s recent European record with a wry smile. “I think what you’ve got to do is because we play a lot of big games, you can’t get in the habit of going ‘big game, big game’, you’ve got to reset on Monday. Europe, a whole different ball game, refereeing, all these differences, you’ve got to discuss them in the week and make sure that you understand it’s going to be a step up in intensity.

“You’ve got to go to Ulster and play away, where we haven’t really got a great result out of, and it’s a tough place to go. So (our) feet will be firmly on the ground, we’re nowhere near the finished article, the group’s a hungry young group who wants to get better and better and we’ll come in on Monday and review what was good, what was not good and we’ll go on from there.

Youngs has bad memories in the Champions Cup (Getty)

“Any time you get a win it’s good preparation, isn’t it? There’s plenty of stuff that we can work on which is even better because it keeps your feet grounded.

“(Saturday was) a good atmosphere, a big derby and something that meant more than rugby with Rob Horne and making sure that he’s good. So it was a good set-up for next week, but it’s pretty intimidating in Ulster having played there a few times. There’s some young boys out there that are going to have to experience it and we’re going to have to make sure in the week that they understand what’s going to happen out there.”