Martin Johnson is a good option to replace Richard Cockerill - Aaron Mauger

Interim Leicester Tigers coach Aaron Mauger has tipped former England captain Martin Johnson as a possible replacement for Richard Cockerill.

After Leicester Tigers dropped out of Aviva Premiership play-off berths, the club decided to sack rugby director Cockerill from the post enabling former All Blacks centre Mauger to take temporary charge of the team.

Johnson, who captained England to 2003 World Cup triumph also led his club Leicester Tigers to consecutive Heineken Cup victories and won the league six times during his association with them which lasted from 1989 to 2006. He also has the experience of coaching England between 2008 and 2011.

When asked about Johnson as a possible replacement to Cockerill, Mauger replied: "That's other boys' decision, but he's probably one guy you'd look at.

"He's obviously a Leicester legend. I'm sure as the board go through the process of the coaching structure they'll look at all those options.

"I haven't thought about it too much to be fair. I'm (in) interim charge, till the end of the season. That's the brief."

Mauger also made it clear that his intermediate focus is only on helping the players gain confidence and he hasn't given a thought on taking the full-time role.

"I haven't really had time to focus on those things, I just want to get it right for the group at the moment.

"What they need is my energy for the challenge this week and make sure we get today and tomorrow right, then put in a good performance at Wasps on Sunday."

There were reports emerging that rift between Mauger and Cockerill led to the latter's exit from the club but the 36-year-old claimed that all is well between the duo despite contrasting style of coaching methods.

"Cockers and I knew there would be a lot of differences between us but we thought that could be a good thing," said Mauger.

"Personally we get on really well. But in terms of coaching relationships we probably have lots of fundamental differences of philosophy in how to play and how you train to the point where I'd be saying 'black' and Cockers would be saying 'white'.

"When you have too many differences it is often hard to give clarity to people going forward and that is probably where we came a bit unstuck.

"Personally, we get along well but unfortunately those barriers we couldn't work through and that hasn't been helped by the fact that we've not been able to transfer all the good stuff onto the field consistently.

"I haven't sensed any divides (in the playing squad). Cockers has been so good to a lot of players.

"He's brought a lot of the local-born players through from the academy and given them their opportunities. It's only natural they're going to feel pretty emotional at this time.

"When the board look at performance they want to know why we are not getting there. A lot of questions have been asked over the last couple of months.

"Lots of people have given feedback and the feedback has been pretty consistent: that we are all responsible."