Jasper Wiese the star as Leicester battle past Edinburgh to make Champions Cup quarter-final

Leicester Tigers 16 Edinburgh 6

Publicly suggesting that you can knock 10 bells out of Jasper Wiese turns out to not be the smartest strategy. The attempt by Steve Diamond, Edinburgh's lead rugby consultant, to rev up his pack ahead of facing Leicester on a miserable Friday night was certainly well-intentioned.

Diamond's comments were naturally whispered into Wiese's ear by Leicester's head coach Richard Wigglesworth and the results when the No 8 came off the bench were unquestionably effective, with Diamond's comments turning out to have the opposite effect. Wiese scooped up a loose ball before rampaging his way through the Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie and somehow having the nimble footwork despite his size to finish in the corner.

Wiese's arrival came earlier than planned, brought on at half-time as an injury replacement for Olly Cracknell, and the challenge will be managing the game time of a player who Leicester will need every ounce of impact out of entering the stage of the season when trophies are on the line. Ritchie, reflecting afterwards, noted that Wiese had been Leicester's best player this season.

"Those X-factor moments are exceptional, we have seen that from him before. Maybe not the twinkle toes, but certainly the power," Wigglesworth noted.

Coming off the bench to win player of the match and make 10 tackles made for a lively 40 minutes, and if Leicester are to win in Dublin next weekend against Leinster, their most likely quarter-final date before today's games are played on Saturday, they will need Wiese at his best.

Jack van Poortvliet's performance in conditions so poor that you might as well have played the parts of the game in a washing machine was also encouraging. Continuing to learn his craft at Test level in an England side going through a transition under Steve Borthwick has been a challenge. But Kevin Sinfield, England's assistant coach, watching from the stands will have been pleased with Van Poortvliet's game management in testing weather.

Wigglesworth, who of course knows a fair bit about managing the game in the wet at scrum-half, recognised the long-term benefits for Van Poortvliet of controlling this game effectively in a knockout fixture. It was a well-executed Van Poortvliet box-kick which had Darcy Graham scrambling around by his own posts, leading to a scrum from which Leicester kicked three points.

"We haven't played in much wet weather in the past couple of years. When I played at Sale we played in the rain every other week. Jack kicked the ball exceptionally," Wigglesworth said. "There will be a bit in that game for him. He is just trying to do the right thing, a team player, and he has an exceptional right boot which really worked tonight."

Handre Pollard's increasing influence on this Leicester side can only help Van Poortvliet's development too, with Wigglesworth praising the Springbok No 10's control with the boot. That level of control exerted by Leicester's half-backs combined with a miserly defence - Tommy Reffell, the Wales flanker, made 25 tackles - proved to be the difference. "We blinked first," was the verdict of Mike Blair, Edinburgh's head coach. He was right, with Wiese's game-changing moment a crucial turning point.