Leicester Tigers boss Dan McKellar: 'Awesome' East Midlands derby 'important for us'
- Published
Dan McKellar took charge of Leicester Tigers in the summer
Boss Dan McKellar has embraced what the East Midlands derby means to Leicester Tigers, but he is not letting his players be distracted by the rivalry.
Tigers are second from bottom in the Premiership with one win in five games.
Saints, meanwhile, have won three consecutive games leading up to the 252nd showdown with Leicester.
"The reality is that we're not happy with one win from five, it's an important fixture for us," McKellar told BBC Radio Leicester.
"It doesn't really matter who we play on Saturday. We have to make sure that we go out there and execute our plan to the best of our ability.
"We know we will be under pressure at times and that we will get opportunities and the opposition will get opportunities. We need to deny them and make sure that we are better attacking because if we did that against Harlequins, it's probably a different result."
Tigers were last week edged out by Quins in a victory that returned the London side to the top of the Premiership table.
With McKellar reintegrating half-a-dozen returning World Cup players - England's Ben Youngs, Dan Cole, Freddie Steward and Ollie Chessum and World Cup-winning South Africans Jasper Wiese and Handre Pollard - to his squad for the Quins match, it was both a supercharged and new-look side under the Australian.
"We started training back on 3 July, so the detail and repetition that we drilled and trained over and over again, these boys missed out on," McKellar said.
"While they are quality players, understanding takes a little bit of time. So cohesion won't be perfect on Saturday, but it's certainly in a much better place than it was seven days ago.
"As disappointed as we were with areas of our game, and we are not going to shy away from that, I think there was lot of positively as well.
"Players turned up on Monday in a really good head-space and really excited about the week ahead of them."
'No issue with motivation'
McKellar says he has been careful when dealing with the anticipation of the derby showdown - a highlight of the fixture calendar for both sides.
Although it will be his first taste of it, he has coached the ACT Brumbies against rivals NSW Waratahs in Australia, while the experience of Tigers coaches Brett Deacon and Matt Smith - two former Tigers - has primed him for what to expect.
"I've certainly heard plenty about it, the history of it," McKellar added.
"It's awesome, isn't it. It's part of the reason why you are involved in the game at this level.
"There will be no issue with adrenaline or motivation, it will be an unbelievable atmosphere here.
"I think the players understand now that going crazy on a Monday is going to burn a whole lot of energy and get yourself wound up, and come Saturday you are potentially burnt out.
"They are well across what is required to prepare well to put ourselves in a position to perform well."