Kiwi Scott Hamilton scored a hat-trick of tries from his favourite full-back spot and then said: "That's my position to lose."

The 29-year-old has spent most of his 12 months at the club on the wing.

However, with skipper Geordan Murphy out injured, man-of-the-match Hamilton was clinical near the line as Leicester Tigers ran in seven tries against Viadana in a 46-11 win in Italy.

With Murphy not expected back until January, the former Canterbury Crusader said he would be doing all he could to stay in the No.15 shirt in his absence.

"I enjoy it there. That's my favourite spot and, with Geordan out, it is my spot to lose," he said.

"I am looking forward to it and we have some big games coming up, too.

"I was in the right place at the right time to score a few tries and it was not one of my better games. But we came here to get five points and that's what we did.

"We were better than what we showed out there.

"I was quite impressed with their forwards and their fleet-footed backs put us in trouble at times.

"We perhaps lacked a bit of urgency at the breakdown and allowed them to get into our faces. They took a bit of stopping. We made a few mistakes and should have cleaned out better than we did.

"We managed to hang on to the ball for long enough to score the tries when we needed to and will go home pleased with our work."

Hamilton is one of only 26 fit players in the Tigers squad at the minute and he says the absence of so many key men is encouraging some tremendous team spirit as they return to Guinness Premiership action next weekend.

"Hopefully, we can have a few more backs up on their feet soon because we are a bit short at the minute," he said.

"The other way of looking at it, though, is that we have our backs to the wall and that makes you fight that bit harder for each other.

"We are fifth in the Premiership and we have eight points from two games in the Heineken Cup – and we are pretty happy with those eight points from two games.

"We have so much quality to bring in when everyone is fit and they are guys who have been awesome for the club in the last 12 months."