Leicester are English rugby’s most successful club in terms of honours, having won 20 major titles, but they could find themselves bottom of the Premiership at the end of next weekend with three rounds to go after a season of unwanted records.
The 52 points they conceded to the leaders, Exeter, at Welford Road on Saturday was their highest in the Premiership era in a record 12th league defeat of the campaign. Leicester will lose more matches than they win for the first time and are on course for an unprecedented bottom-half finish.
They face the bottom club, Newcastle, on Friday night when they will be up against two former coaches, Dean Richards and John Wells. Leicester have won seven of their past eight league games at Kingston Park but the defeat by Exeter was the ninth in their past 12 Premiership outings and their only success on the road this season was against Northampton at Twickenham.
“We have not spoken about relegation once,” Leicester’s England fly‑half, George Ford, said. “It is not in our minds. We are where we are because we haven’t been good enough. The table does not lie and we hold our hands up. We are there for a reason.
“Newcastle are in a similar position to us. They are good at home, savvy in the way they play and hard to beat. We will be excited to play them and we have to prepare well to give ourselves the best chance of winning.”
Asked whether it was one of the biggest matches in Leicester’s history, Ford replied: “No. It is the next one. We have to put a serious plan together in training and commit to it.”
Leicester will be without their England scrum-half Ben Youngs for the rest of the season after surgery on a shoulder he injured at the end of England’s Six Nations campaign, and his brother, Tom, faces a ban after being sent off against Exeter for a dangerous challenge. The centre Kyle Eastmond is unlikely to play again this season after suffering a torn hamstring.
“It is disappointing,” Ford said. “Ben brings an attacking threat and experience and Tom sets the standard in the forward pack in terms of physicality. I am not going to say everything is going against us. You have to make things go your way and we do not help ourselves at times in matches. The game challenges you and it is about how you react. Nothing is ever plain sailing and you have to see tough periods through.
“It was not good enough to lose like that against Exeter. We are conceding points too easily, whether it is through missed one-on-one tackles or giving away tries chasing a game. We have got to become harder to score against. Exeter were brilliant in the way they held on to the ball and created opportunities. It shows how much we have to do.”
Leicester trailed 28-10 after 28 minutes but cut the deficit to eight points by half-time, only to start the second period slowly and they were trailing by 25 points when Youngs was sent off. “Things unravelled,” Ford said. “It was not acceptable. When you concede 50 points you have a lot of work to do.”
