Newcastle v Leicester

Y all the tools to succeed ou would expect doom and gloom but, there again, it is an unseasonably gorgeous September day and the interviewee is Leicester fly-half Freddie Burns.

Not even last weekend’s thumping loss at home to Wasps, their first since 2008, following on from the use of their ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card in the opening round at Gloucester, can dampen Burns’s spirits or his sense of humour.

I expected grim details of a raging reprimand handed out by director of rugby Richard Cockerill after the 34-22 defeat last Saturday, when the Tigers’ changing-room door stayed closed for much longer than usual, delaying Cockerill’s presence at the post-match press conference by a good hour. But no.

“He had a few words, but nothing too much,” Burns says of Cockerill. “There were a few words on Tuesday morning when we went through our review package, too, but we have got to remain confident. It’s not a time, two rounds into the Premiership, to be knocking people’s confidence, so the squad has stayed tight.”

That is fair enough, but there have been some seriously worrying signs in those two rounds, in which Leicester have shipped 65 points.

They ended last season by conceding 38 and 44 to Bath and Saracens respectively, too.

Well, first of all Burns is not buying into the theory that the Gloucester 3pm. BT Sport 1 ‹ Ally Hogg starts for Newcastle in a reshuffled back row, with Mark Wilson moving to blindside and Evan Olmstead at lock instead of Will Witty. Dominic Waldouck replaces the injured Chris Harris. England centre Manu Tuilagi is again out for Leicester – Peter Betham and Owen Williams team up in midfield– while scrum-half Ben Youngs makes his first start of the season. Wing Telusa Veainu is back after missing the defeat by Wasps.