Borthwick’s message to the Tigers faithful: ‘We need you with us’
STEVE Borthwick pointed to Leicester Tigers’ last league game as an example of how a big home crowd could have a positive impact this season.
Mattioli Woods Welford Road will welcome back supporters without a capacity restriction for the first time since February 2020 when Exeter Chiefs arrive tomorrow for the Gallagher Premiership round one encounter.
Head coach Borthwick got a taster of what it was like to have Leicester’s home support behind him during the final round of the 2020/21 season, when 6,000 fans were allowed in for the 26-23 defeat to Bristol Bears.
It was marked by controversy as the Tigers boss became locked in a heated discussion with Pat Lam over his front row replacements following a late yellow card.
Despite piling on the pressure at scrum-time, Tigers couldn’t convert their dominance into a match-winning score as the visitors successfully disrupted the final setpiece with the last play of the game.
“If I take it back to when we played against Bristol at the end of last season, I saw the emotion from the supporters, how much they wanted to cheer their team on, how much they were behind their team,” Borthwick said.
“I know there were some pretty unique circumstances that happened within that game.
“But that’s the nature of where Leicester Tigers are at right now, there’s teams at the top and there’s a gap.
“When you have that situation, it tends to be that things lean against you.
“We need all of our supporters with us on this journey.”
Exeter will be without their British and Irish Lions players Stuart Hogg, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Johnny Hill and Sam Simmonds.
But Borthwick remains respectful of their threat and had this message for supporters.
“We’re trying to rebuild this club back up from where it was, which was the worst team in the league,” he said. “To try and be a team that competes. This weekend we play against a team that has been in six finals and I have incredible respect for this team and their coaches and I have incredible respect for the job they’ve done over the last period of time.
“We definitely need our supporters and we’re definitely looking forward to having them at Mattioli Woods Welford Road this weekend.
“We got that taste with supporters in at Mattioli Woods Welford Road last season, the atmosphere, even though it was just a fraction of what the capacity is, I think you can see how much our supporters are with this team. I am looking forward to getting this journey started with our supporters with us.”
HEAD COACH HAD PARTIAL TASTE OF FAN POWER AT END OF LAST SEASON