The Mirror rugby correspondent believes another famous victory at Thomond Park on Saturday would show that Leicester mean business
It is almost nine years since Leicester made history in rugby’s European Cup by beating Munster at Thomond Park.
No visiting team had previously won in Limerick in Europe’s premier competition. Only one has managed it since.
It brought great kudos to Tigers at the time and will afford them considerable respect when they return to the scene for Saturday’s rematch in Pool 4 of this season’s tournament.
But one famous evening, when tries by Ollie Smith and fullback-turned-coach Geordan Murphy stunned the locals into silence, brought no greater reward.
For while Leicester have since won four English Premiership titles, they have failed to add to the back-to-back European titles they won in 2001 and 2002.
Thirteen years of Euro hurt is a lot of pain for a club of their stature, which is why their current impatience is easily understood.
Next week Tigers are due to formally open their new Caterpillar Stand, increasing the capacity of Welford Road to 26,500. Their trophy cabinet has not needed enlarging in two-and-a-half years.
No wonder they have dug so deep this week to re-sign Manu Tuilagi, not to mention his England team mates Ben Youngs and Freddie Burns, as well as club captain Ed Slater.
This is both a declaration of intent and a tacit admission that they cannot afford to be off the pace any longer. Buoyed by those re-signings, a visit to Leicester’s training ground on Tuesday found genuine expectation matching hope.
The arrival as head coach of former All Blacks star Aaron Mauger has expanded both their game plan and their vision of what they can achieve in the next year or two.
Both Tuilagi and Youngs made it apparent that their decisions to recommit to the club was influenced by Mauger’s presence on the training field as well as a decent pay packet.
But for Leicester, as for Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs in football, success is measured not on artistic impression but results.
The Tigers need to be kings of the jungle again.
That is the burden they carry with them to the south-west of Ireland this weekend, where a repeat of their 2007 win is the aim – and a losing bonus point their minimum requirement.
Munster come into the game on the back of two defeats but Tigers boss Richard Cockerill refuses to take any comfort from that.
His team might have won their first two games in the competition but there is little room for error.
Not now. Not for a club like Leicester.
