Harrison demands a repeat performance
LEICESTER’S historic victory over Saracens last week will count for nothing unless they back it up at Worcester today, says No.9 Sam Harrison.
Harrison, who clocked up his 100th appearance in a Tigers jersey and was key to his side’s first ever league win at Allianz Park, is demanding a repeat.
“We had to win last week and coming away with five points from Saracens took a while to sink in, but the main thing now is we back it up,” Harrison told TRP.
“If we can do that all bets are off because we’ll put ourselves right in the top four mix, but if we lose what we did at Saracens will probably be forgotten.”
After spending his career in the shadow of Ben Youngs, the England pivot’s recent knee injury has presented Harrison, 27, with an extended run.
He said: “There’s more responsibility on me but this was always a key part of the season – it just means I’ll get more games after the Six Nations.
“I’ve always been aware of my situation with one of the best nines in the world being at Leicester. But I enjoy pushing him and I’ll look to improve now and try to push him even harder when he’s back.
“Hopefully we’ll see Ben before the end of the season and we’ve got two cracking young 9s in Ben White and Harry Simmons, so there’s no panic in that respect and we’ve just got to keep winning games.”
Back-to-back wins for Leicester have coincided with the arrival of forwards coach Mark Bakewell, with a powerful pack effort at Saracens underpinning their revival.
Harrison added: “Mark’s brought a lot to our forwards and, for me as a scrum-half, the ball we were getting was incredibly different from before. Brett Deacon’s doing good work at the breakdown, too, and we’re getting the rewards from that. Worcester beat us on our patch but we’ll go their firing with the confidence we’ve gained from last week.”
Leicester have captain Tom Youngs back at hooker and Mathew Tait at centre.
Tait takes over from Gareth Owen, who needs surgery after enduring a shoulder injury in the win at Saracens.
Worcester are without injured scrum-half Francois Hougaard (ankle) so Jonny Arr starts, while lock Will Spencer and flanker David Denton also return.