Skipper Geordan Murphy said Leicester Tigers' outstanding fitness levels meant they could have gone on playing long after the final whistle.

The 31-year-old Irishman admitted he was nervous entering extra-time after seeing Cardiff Blues wipe out a 14-point Tigers lead with two tries in the space of two minutes.

But Murphy said he sensed early in the extra period that Tigers had not been knocked out by what he described as "two hammer-blows."

Instead, the full-back felt the Tigers were sharp, even as the final whistle sounded on 100 minutes of pulsating action.

Murphy said: "Going into extra time, I was a little bit nervous.

"But, after two minutes, I thought we looked sharp and fit and were playing all of the rugby. We made a couple of decisions when we made breaks and perhaps could have held on to the ball for longer and maybe got a penalty.

"But we were anxious to play and be positive and that is something that Cockers (head coach Richard Cockerill) has encouraged us to do – although a couple of times he was probably screaming and telling us to hold on to the ball!

"At the end of the second 10 minutes of extra-time, I wanted us to keep going and didn't want to stop.

"None of us cramped up and we have worked very hard on our fitness."

Cockerill said kicking coach Paul Burke played an important role in Tigers' penalty shoot-out victory. Tigers booked their place in the showpiece end to the season at Murrayfield on Saturday, May 23, after successfully kicking seven of their eight penalties.

Cockerill revealed he turned to Burke for help in selecting his kickers.

Cockerill said: "We spoke about it and we discussed who would be our best guys to kick for goal.

"We talked with our kicking coach Paul Burke and said: 'It's your time to make some decisions, my friend'.

"He said: 'That's what I want, those guys will do it', and I said: 'Okay, off we go'. You have to trust your team."

Cockerill added: "It's a cruel way to go out and the organisers need to look at that. Maybe you keep playing until someone wins. It may be a great spectacle, but it's a pretty hollow way to finish the game for the players, I think."

Murphy said that he was happy to see forwards Craig Newby and Jordan Crane, who kept his nerve to slot the winning kick, step forward to take their shots at goal.

He said: "It (the shoot-out) was quite a strange one really. When some of the boys were told that they were going to take a penalty, they were more nervous than I had seen them in a long time.

"There was a lot of pressure on but most of the guys just got into the zone when they realised they were going to take one.

"It was not a good way to win a game but it's not a nice way to lose a game either. I feel sorry for the Cardiff boys."

"I was quite happy when Jordan Crane and Craig Newby stepped up because they are both forwards who like practising their kicking after training.

"I would have been a lot more scared if Harry Ellis or Dan Hipkiss had stepped up because they might have hit someone in the corner!

"We practised in pre-season. We did fitness drills and at the end we pulled the kickers up and, if you missed, you did extra drills.

"It's not something we practise now.

"But I was pretty confident because we had confident footballers in our side who could take penalties."