Leicester against Bath has over the years been one of the highlights of the European rugby calendar. It lost a pinch of its piquancy a decade ago as the West Country club failed to make the move from amateurism to professionalism as seamlessly as their rivals, but a sell-out crowd at Welford Road on Sunday is testimony to its enduring appeal at a time when it is the Tigers who are adrift of the top four.
As the debate over the salary cap enters another round, Leicester and Bath are at opposite ends of the argument. The latter, losing some £3m a year and bogged down in years of talks over their Recreation Ground, have used the largesse of their multimillion-pound owner Bruce Craig to turn them into title contenders while the Tigers, the best supported club in England, record a profit every year and live within their means.
“I agree with the salary cap,” said Leicester’s England hooker, Tom Youngs. “It has helped make the Premiership the outstanding tournament it is and is good for the game. It needs to keep increasing so that clubs can grow their squads and have more players to call on during what is a long season to help offset injuries, but it has to stay.
“The majority of matches in the league are tight, nail-biting affairs and that is because the best players are not concentrated in a few clubs but spread around. Crowds are packing our grounds and everyone looks forward to the game at the end of the week. I really enjoy being part of it and you have to be careful what you wish for: when you look at France it is hard to keep up with all the comings and goings. The cap gives us stability in England.”
Leicester have more than a continued tilt at the top four to plan on Sunday: in the first match between the sides last September, they were thrashed in Bath and failed to score a point for only the second time in a Premiership match. Youngs was a substitute that afternoon and had been on the field only a few minutes when he suffered a shoulder injury that was to keep him out of action for two months and rule him out of England’s autumn international series.
“They gave us a right thumping and we have not forgotten,” said Youngs. “They are playing well, confident through winning games comfortably. It is a tight race for the top four positions with eight clubs involved: Northampton, Bath and Saracens have established a bit of a lead, but there is a long way to go and this is the stage of the season when the ability to grind out results is crucial.
“We know what it takes to finish in the top four and I hope that stands us in good stead in the coming months. We keep playing to the end, as we showed last weekend at Sale when we came from 15 points down to secure a bonus-point win. If we had lost, we would have slumped to eighth in the table. In such a tight league, you have to battle for every point: we scored a late try to secure a draw at home to Bath last season. It can be the difference between finishing in the top four or not and while we are not happy about where we are in the league, we had a huge injury list earlier in the season and it told.”
Youngs will be up against one of his rivals for the England hooker’s jersey, Rob Webber, at a time when the future of the first choice in the position in November, Dylan Hartley, is dividing opinion following the red card he received last month playing for Northampton against Leicester when he elbowed the centre Matt Smith in the face. He was subsequently banned for three weeks.
“The red card happened and everyone has to move on,” said Youngs. “Stuart Lancaster [the England head coach] will review everything and take it from there. Dylan is a friend of mine and I hope it does not affect his international career. Things happen in matches between Leicester and Northampton, as I should know after being flattened by a punch during the play-off semi-final at Franklin’s Gardens last May. They are big occasions, tough for referees, and you need to be on edge. As professional players, we have the job of keeping a lid on things, but there will be times when it blows off. The east Midlands derby is just unlike any other game.
“Rob has played well for Bath and England this season and I want to be a part of the Six Nations having missed out in the autumn. The World Cup is a carrot, but there is a long way to go before then and we cannot look beyond next month’s opener in Cardiff, a nice start in what will be the toughest of games; it is the sort of place where you need to make a point. I do not think the result will mean anything come the World Cup because that will be a different time and place, but after what happened to us at the Millennium Stadium two years ago we want to show how much we have improved as a team. The results in the autumn were mixed, but people need to remember how many players were missing through injury. The series showed the incredible strength in depth we have and we are well placed going into such an important year.”
Before all that, there is the little matter of Bath …
