Leicester Tigers centre Matt Smith says Leicester Tigers will take much-needed confidence into next week&apos;s Gallagher Premiership clash with Bristol Bears at Welford Road after the nail-biting win over Newcastle Falcons last weekend.
And Smith, who made his 150th Premiership appearance in that 27-22 victory at Kingston Park, believes that confidence has been the missing ingredient in Leicester&apos;s recent performances ahead of that much-needed win over Newcastle.
"Tactically and physically we haven&apos;t been off at all," said Smith, who showed no ill-effects from the serious arm injury he sustained in Paris against Racing 92 in the Heineken Cup just before Christmas.
"It has been that mental side, how we bounce back from adversity. The resilience we showed on our line in that last five minutes at Newcastle is what a proper Tigers performance looks like. The grit, the determination, the never-say-die attitude is what this club is built on and there were bucketloads of that in that last defensive set."
Confidence is one thing but complacency is another and Smith says there is no way that will come into play over the remainder of the season as Tigers look to move up from the discomfort of 10th place.
"Straight away after the win on Friday we said we can&apos;t rest on our laurels," he said. "We have three big games coming up and the way we are looking at it is that there are 15 points we can pick up. We are training hard this week and will be firing into the Bristol game next week."
Tigers look to settle a score against Bristol after being hammered at Ashton Gate in December before rounding off the season with a trip to Harlequins and a home match against Bath.
In this hugely unpredictable season in the top flight, nothing can be taken for granted - as Bristol showed in sinking Saracens last Saturday, while Wasps stung runaway leaders Exeter Chiefs on their own patch. "We want to get a good win against Bristol and build on that and you never know what is going to happen from there," Smith said.
"We are targeting three wins and the way the team is playing we are going to take a lot of confidence from last Friday and mentally that is going to kick us on again."