Leicester take their customary place in the play-offs but they needed eight victories in their last nine matches to achieve it. They are used to being the favourites at the knockout stage of the Premiership but they will not be fancied to win at Bath on Saturday, a ground where they lost 45-0 in September.
The perception, judged on their record in the last 12 years, is that Leicester have had an indifferent season. Yet, as their director of rugby, Richard Cockerill, pointed out after a hard-fought but ultimately comfortable victory over the reserves of their east Midlands neighbours, they won 15 matches in the regular season compared with the 16 of Northampton, who finished top.
The difference has been in performance. While Leicester’s four rivals for the play-offs finished with a points difference above 200, the Tigers’ was a mere 32 and only London Welsh secured fewer bonus points. Doggedness and a will to win undimmed by setbacks at the start of the campaign, not least a chronic injury list and some heavy defeats, have taken them to where they have come to belong.
Leicester now face a tough task in a match between the two form sides in the Premiership; Bath have won six successive league matches.
“Bath are a good side and have earned the right to play at home for a reason,” said the Leicester captain, Ben Youngs. “We are the underdogs but it is a one-off game and we have a dressing room full of players who have experience of playing in big matches, whether for the Lions, country or club. We lost heavily at the Rec earlier in the season but what happened then is irrelevant.”
Leicester, who have lost their last four Premiership matches at Bath, have been at their least effective this season when taking a game to opponents, not ones to play catch-up. They will look to utilise their play-off experience against opponents who last finished in the top four in 2010. On Saturday they wore down Northampton and won the game during a spell in the second half when they had a two-man advantage, with both Saints’ tight-head props in the sin-bin, and scored 10 points.
“Northampton were confrontational and tried to muscle their way around,” Youngs said. “Bath are a bit more stylish and have the likes of George Ford, Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph. They have a juggernaut pack and electric backs. We will have to be right on it but the pressure will be on them as they finished above us and will be at home. They have not been at this stage for five years and games like this come down to small margins. We lost at Northampton in last year’s semi-final in the 78th minute and that game, which we should have won, will drive us on this week.”
Jim Mallinder, Northampton’s director of rugby, had no qualms about resting most of his starting players on Saturday despite the potential impact on Leicester’s play-off rivals, Saracens and Exeter, having already achieved home advantage. His side led at half-time and, had Tom Stephenson’s try six minutes from time been converted, Leicester would have had a nervous finale.
“It was not about knocking Leicester out of the top four,” Mallinder said. “Our aim at the start of the season was to finish first and we achieved that.” Their visitors on Saturday will be Saracens in a repeat of last season’s final which Saints won with a try in the final minute of extra time. They have since recorded the double over Saracens, who have won eight times at Franklin’s Gardens in the Premiership era.
While Northampton will revert to strength in the semi-final, not ruling out the return of George North after nearly two months out following his third concussion of the season, some of their fringe players impressed against Leicester, not least the centre Dominic Waldouck, whose career has stalled since his move from Wasps, and the flanker Teimana Harrison.
They led 9-8 at half-time but were undone after a series of scrums near their line resulted in five penalties for Leicester and yellow cards for Gareth Denman and Salesi Ma’afu. Cockerill and Youngs said they would have preferred a penalty try to cards, although sideways movement did not raise the probability of a try being scored, but it was a foretaste of what Bath can expect. Again playing a second-row on the blindside, the Tigers will look for set-piece supremacy as their foundation.
“We are a tough team to beat,” said the full-back Niall Morris, whose try took the match away from Northampton. “We were determined not to become the first Leicester side not to make the play-offs but our ambition does not end there after a season in which we have endured a lot of criticism. Our goal is the final.”
Leicester Morris; Thompstone, Tait, Loamanu (Roberts, 70), Goneva; Burns (Bell, 66), B Youngs (capt; Harrison, 66); Mulipola (Ayerza, 47), T Youngs (Thacker, 66), Cole (Balmain, 68), Thorn (De Chaves, 57), Kitchener, Slater (Gibson, 52), Salvi, Crane.
Tries Crane, Morris. Pens Burns 3, Bell.
Northampton Tuala; Elliott (Packman, 47), Waldouck, Stephenson, Collins; Wilson (Olver, 67), Dickson (Fotuali’i, 47); Corbisiero (A Waller, 53), Haywood (Hartley, 66), Ma’afu (Denman, 50), Dickinson, Craig (Day, 55), Dowson (capt), Harrison (Nutley, 55), Fisher.
Try Stephenson. Pens Wilson 3.
Sin-bin Denman 50, Ma’afu 52.
Referee M Carley. Attendance 24,000
