Captain Tom promises fight to the finish at Twickenham

NO English club has appeared in more European finals than Leicester, but it will be a first for the Tigers on Friday night when they face Montpellier at Twickenham in front of 10,000 spectators.

- PAUL REES

NO English club has appeared in more European finals than Leicester, but it will be a first for the Tigers on Friday night when they face Montpellier at Twickenham in front of 10,000 spectators.

Their finals have all come in the Champions Cup, but they have become the tenth Premiership club to reach the last stage of the Challenge Cup, a competition they have been involved in for only the last two seasons after slipping down the Premiership table.

Bath have also played in five European finals, four in the Challenge Cup, and only Toulouse have appeared in more Champions Cup finals than Leicester who under their director of rugby Steve Borthwick have made significant progress in the last nine months.

“Steve has instilled a DNA in us again,” said Leicester captain Tom Youngs, who was a squad player in 2009 when they made their last appearance in a Champions Cup final. “We want to be a tough side to beat, but you have to train hard to achieve that. The easiest thing is to say something and the hardest is to do it.

“Steve has cleared a path to where we want to go and no one is under any illusions about what it will take to get there. It does not take a scientist to work out that we are a lot better than we were and we are continuing to improve.

“We are further up the line than we were six months ago and if we keep working hard, we will be further up it again in another six months.”