Anyone counting the number of times Steve Borthwick has referenced how Leicester were used to fighting relegation battles when he arrived at Welford Road will have long since run out of fingers and toes. In fairness the coach’s attempts to keep the lid on the hype have evidently worked, given this is the first season any side has topped the table after every round but, approaching Saturday’s Premiership semi-finals, there is no escaping the expectation on Leicester to deliver.
To illustrate their resurgence, they are unbeaten in the league at home all season. A thumping opening-day win over Exeter and a last-gasp victory over Saracens add to the sense that Leicester are destined for a return to Twickenham for their first final in nine years and, if their form has not quite been making as many headlines in recent weeks, it is because their playoff place was wrapped up long ago.
The fact that they host Northampton on Saturday adds spice to proceedings and certainly the Saints are the form side in the league with six bonus-point wins in their past seven matches. But should Leicester’s forwards, led by the indomitable Ellis Genge in his last Tigers appearance at Welford Road, get the upper hand they are expected to, it is hard to see the visitors gaining the platform from which to unleash their swashbuckling attack.
All of which may seem to set Leicester up for a monumental fall but there is a steeliness to them under Borthwick. Their limitations may have been exposed by Leinster in Europe but lessons have been learned from that defeat and after so many lean years in the Premiership there is a determination to seize the opportunity on Saturday.
“When you have for a while not been anywhere near the playoffs, watching it from afar and watching other teams get success, you do think ‘will we get an opportunity again, will I get an opportunity like that again at the club. Will we have a genuine shot again?’” says Ben Youngs who, along with Dan Cole and George Ford, is one of three Leicester starters who played in the 2013 Twickenham triumph, also against Northampton.
“There’s been a lot of change. It wasn’t just from a coaching and staff point of view or from a playing point of view. The board changed and the vision changed in terms of everything from the bottom to the top. There is a lot more to it than the simple fact new coaches came in. There has been a huge amount of work done nowhere near the training field or in team meetings. There has been a lot of work that has gone in but the great thing and most pleasing thing is there is real great alignment from the CEO and the chairman, Peter Tom, all the way down to the bottom. We’re all on board and clear about what we want to be as a team and where we want to go.”
Youngs was speaking at the start of the week, before the club announced the news that his sister-in-law Tiffany – wife of his brother and former Leicester captain Tom – had died from cancer. It is to Ben’s immense credit that he takes to the field on Saturday and in Tiffany’s memory the club have arranged for a minute’s applause before kick-off. Suffice it to say, the Welford Road roof will be raised.
“I take confidence playing at Welford Road and a huge amount of confidence in our gameplan and my teammates,” Youngs says. “You draw on that and don’t get hung up on what if. You get hung up on, ‘I am going to go out there and deliver it and let’s make it happen.’ That is the thought process from our point of view, being at home you want to go out there and get the game going.
“Anyone that comes to Welford Road as an away team knows they are in for a great atmosphere, plenty of noise and from our point of view playing at home is the best place to play.”
