Burns left in ‘disbelief’ at title triumph
I tried to get the boys on it and luckily enough we cleared up that restart.
“I’m in disbelief right now. I’m normally not short of words, but I can’t believe what’s happened.
“Japan was the best thing that happened to me. It allowed me to fall back in love with the game and check my ego.
“To have this moment with a group of players, who I couldn’t love any more, is special. I’m a bit all over the shop. I keep having this out-of-body experience.”
Leicester led the Premiership from start to finish and – despite entering the final as underdogs – they showed all the resilience needed to claim their 11th league title, but first since 2013.
“We’ve been a team of fighters all year, we’ve shown that in numerous games. We knew this was going to be hard. I don’t think people really gave us much of a shot,” Burns said.
“Everyone was talking about Sarries’ big-game players, but I wouldn’t have swapped any of our boys for theirs. We kept on fighting and we came out at the right end.”
Tigers director of rugby Steve Borthwick, above, the former Bath second row and Bristol coach, has masterminded the resurgence and he suggested that winning the Premiership could be the start of a new Leicester dynasty.
“There’s a lot of growth in this team. The average age is 25 years old. The players are all really keen and want to get better,” Borthwick said.
Defeat saw Saracens’ quest for redemption – following their relegation in 2019 for repeated salary cap breaches – come apart at the final hurdle and director of rugby Mark McCall offered no excuses.
“Congratulations to Leicester, they have had a phenomenal season and been top of the league all year. They were the better team and deserved to win the match,” McCall said.
“They trapped us in our half for long periods and backed that up with brilliant defensive work. We were a bit suffocated. We didn’t get anywhere near our best.
“Hopefully we can use the pain that we’re going to feel over the next few days in a constructive way to come back stronger next season.”