Matt O'Connor confident of Leicester's success against Wasps

Leicester Tigers head coach Matt O'Connor believes his team's performance in the second half of the Aviva Premiership clash against Wasps in January will keep them upbeat when they head to Ricoh Arena for the semi-final clash on Saturday.

The last time these two teams met was in Round 13 of the Aviva Premiership where Dai Young's men had a comfortable 19-0 lead at half time with tries from Christian Wade, Tommy Taylor and Dan Robson.

However, Leicester Tigers bounced back hard in the second half with touchdown from Peter Betham while Freddie Burns added a converted try along with a double penalty from Owen Williams to reduce the losing margin to just six points.

Even though, O'Connor was not in charge of the Tigers during that phase, the former Queensland Reds and Leinster boss believes the encounter can be used to motivate the team when they take on an in-form Wasps side, who topped the league stage.

"That second-half performance was huge," said O'Connor. "To fight their way back into the game and be within a score at the end was pretty positive. A repeat of that and we will be in the game.

"We will have to be at our very best but there is a lot of belief in the group and there are a lot of class players in the group. There are certain aspects to our game that are as good as anything in the league and if we can get the pay out on those then we have a chance."