The Leicester captain, Tom Youngs, has admitted the club’s England players have shown signs of fatigue following the autumn internationals after the Premiership sides’ European downturn continued last weekend.
Five of England’s seven Premiership clubs, including the Tigers, lost in round four and with all of them whitewashed the week before they are facing their worst showing in Europe for six seasons. Indeed, Leicester, Saracens, Northampton, Harlequins and Exeter all endured back-to-back defeats, having collectively contributed 23 players to England during the autumn.
As it stands, only Bath, who edged out Toulon on Saturday will advance to the knockout stages – the last time the Premiership had just one club in the last eight was 2011-12 – and while Wasps reignited their hopes with an impressive win against La Rochelle, it is not inconceivable that all seven will fall at the pool stages.
That drop-off in form comes after England’s autumn series in which they played Argentina, Australia and Samoa, Eddie Jones all the while determined to focus heavily on the fitness of his players.
“The England boys back are in good condition but the mental strain is huge and it’s getting bigger and bigger,” Youngs said. “And to come straight back from an international and come back playing, it’s tough for those guys to ingrain in. You go from playing at a massive stadium, to coming back to playing in a park.
“The drive is not quite there, it’s different. It takes a while to adjust back, and to adjust back to family life. They come off a very intense camp with Eddie and they are a bit weary. But it’s not an excuse, I don’t know how you manage that as Premier Rugby, but that probably needs looking at. It is very strange how every English team seems off their game a little bit.”
Leicester are all but out of the Champions Cup, having also lost their tournament opener against Racing 92, but will quickly turn their thoughts to the Premiership with matches against Saracens and Exeter to come before the year is out.
Before the European double header they played Wasps, a week after the autumn internationals, with starts for four of their five-strong England contingent – Jonny May out with a head injury. Indeed, across the Premiership that week 28 of the players who went into England camp, where Eddie Jones was determined to focus on fitness, were involved with their clubs and of those to miss out, all but one was due to injury, Henry Slade the only player rested.
Contrast that with Leicester’s opponents last Sunday, Munster. Nine of their 11 internationals had that weekend off and looking at all four provinces, the number of Ireland players involved with their clubs was precisely half that of England.
Asked if Munster’s relative freshness coming into their European matches made a difference, Youngs added: “Mentally it probably does. You freshen up a little bit and you become a little bit more hungry after a week off. You feel: ‘Here we go, let’s rip in now.’ Your body gets a little bit of a rest. But more than that, your mind gets a rest. But that’s how they run their game and we run ours differently, that’s how it is.
“I love playing for Leicester and any opportunity I will get, I’ll take it. It’s the way it is but the game’s getting more physical, the expectation is more and more. We do try and manage things during the week. Training is a lot different to how it was when I first started because the games are that much harder. You can’t keep going to the well because it will be empty when you get to the end of the season.”
