George Chuter targets three wins for Leicester Tigers
Hooker George Chuter says Leicester Tigers need to target three wins from their final three games in the Heineken Cup pool and not worry about bonus points.
Tigers head to Treviso tomorrow looking to record an 18th consecutive win over Italian opposition in Europe's top competition.
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George Chuter
Then, in January, they face altogether tougher tests with the Ospreys away and French giants Toulouse at home.
Various permutations could lead to Leicester making progress to the semi-finals for the first time in three years as either group winners or potential the best-placed runner-up.
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Chuter insists they can raise the bar and produce the sort of intensity and performance that will make qualifying for the last eight a given, instead of worrying about what happens elsewhere in the group.
"If we set out our stall to win all three games, we will be on at least 22 points and that gives us a good chance of topping the group and getting a home semi-final," said the 36-year-old.
"It's difficult to look that far ahead but that has to be our mind-set. There is no reason why we cannot win any of those last three games.
"These games are different from the Aviva Premiership and the intensity is a notch higher. There are usually 15 players on the pitch from each side who are internationals.
"That step up in intensity is something that has perhaps been missing from our game a bit over the last couple of years.
"We have to treat them as one-off games and cannot afford to just drift through matches.
"We cannot think about planning to pick up bonus points and we have learned from the past that we cannot rely on other results to help us out."
Having started last Sunday's game with several second-choice players, Treviso are likely to offer a much bigger threat at the Stadio di Monigo with a full-strength side out.
"Treviso had some of their second and third-choice forwards on the pitch at the start but the substitutions they made around half-time made a big difference," said Chuter.
"The second half was a good example of the way they will play this weekend. They will be dogged, get stuck in and make life difficult for us.
"If they had played like that for 60 minutes instead of 30, it would have been a cracking game."
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