Tom Youngs believes that Leicester reaching the Premiership play-offs this season will be a feat equal to any of their previous top-four finishes.
The Tigers have always made the end-of-season shootout since the current system was introduced 11 years ago, but they are fifth in the table and aware that their proud record is under serious threat.
They looked anything but play-off contenders after heavy defeats at Bath and Gloucester in the first half of the season, together with a home reverse to London Irish. They were then plagued by injuries with Manu Tuilagi, Youngs himself, Tom Croft, Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Ed Slater and Anthony Allen all absent for long periods. Victory against London Welsh on Saturday will take them back into the top four, if only temporarily with Exeter at Wasps the following day.
“If you do things the hard way it makes it sweeter,” said the hooker.
“The way we are looking at it, we will need to win our final three matches of the regular season to make the top four. We can do it. It has been a hard season with an unbelievable number of players out of action in the first three or four months, but we are still in there and it will be an exciting finish to the season.
“We are used to finishing in the top four and we must use that experience to our advantage. We know what it takes to make the play-offs, and if we have not run away with many matches since the turn of the year, we have been winning, apart from a blip at Saracens in the last round,and that is all that matters.”
The Tigers follow what should be a routine five-pointer against London Welsh with two Midlands derbies: Wasps at the Ricoh Arena and Northampton at Welford Road in the final round when both rivals are perhaps in need of a victory, Leicester to finish in the top four and the Saints to clinch a home draw in the play-offs.
“Matches between Leicester and Wasps have traditionally had a bit of spice, but it is still hard to think of the game as a derby,” said Youngs. “Perhaps it will after a couple of years, but at least it rules out needing an overnight stay: Coventry is not far away.
“Northampton is a game unlike one when neutrals who may go to watch another match tape it to see after they get back home. It may be that both sides have something to play for; if Northampton lose to Saracens this weekend and that would add yet another layer of gold dust to the fixture.”
Over the years referees have reached for their cards almost as much as their whistles: Youngs’s opposite number Dylan Hartley was sent off in the first match between the sides last December, the latest in a long line of players to see red in the fixture.
“It is a big match in which things happen,” said Youngs. “We always speak about discipline before we play Northampton and it is a key area of the game, as we saw against Saracens when my yellow card cost us dearly. Emotions run high and in the heat of battle there can be moments.”
Both clubs failed to make the European Champions Cup final, Leicester bowing out at the group stage while Northampton were thrashed by Clermont Auvergne in the quarter-finals, but Youngs does not think there is reason for panic. “Saracens were close against Clermont in the semi-final and played very well in a match both teams deserved to win,” he said.
“There is a financial gap with France – we beat Toulon at home in the group stage and lost away the following week when they were able to field a virtually different team – but we do not want to reach the point where it is difficult for England qualified players to get a game in the Premiership. I am just glad I am not an administrator.”