Jordan Crane praised his Leicester Tigers team-mates for "defending with their lives" as Gloucester threatened to snatch a late and unlikely victory.
Tigers had completely dominated territory and possession at a sold-out Welford Road on Saturday, but went into the closing stages of their Aviva Premiership clash just five points ahead at 17-12.
So when replacement scrum-half Dan Robson broke to within a metre of the Tigers line on 78 minutes, Crane and company were forced into manic defence to stop what could have been a match- winning try. They did that in heroic fashion for 20-odd phases and Crane said that showed a tremendous will to win.
"It was good to come out of it on the right end of things, especially with the defending we had to do at the end," said the 26-year-old.
"I thought at times, that if they had just moved it one pass out wide, they were over.
"The way we were all in there doing whatever we could to stop them was a telling part of the game. We held on and our character showed up at the end.
"If the conditions had held up a bit, I would like to think that we were the better side. We deserved the win.
"It would have been gutting to lose but we came through. The way they celebrated down there was a bit embarrassing for them. It was like they had won the league. We had a point to prove.
"We defended with our lives and it was great to keep them out and hold firm when they tried to breach our line."
No.8 Crane described some of referee Andrew Small's decisions as "interesting" but said there was a lesson to be learned from answering back to some of his calls.
"Sometimes, decisions don't go your way," he said. "He's not going to change his mind but he could change his mind later in the game if you are getting stuck into him.
"That showed after one penalty when he marched us back 10 metres. If there's a lesson to be learned, it is to just be quiet and carry on with the game.
"We came out well in the second half and played the sort of rugby that deserved to win the game."
