Leicester bid to cap turnaround with long-awaited Premiership final place

Anyone counting the number of times Steve Borthwick has referenced how Leicester were used to fighting relegation battles when he arrived at Welford Road will have long since run out of fingers and toes. In fairness the coach’s attempts to keep the lid on the hype have evidently worked, given this is the first season any side has topped the table after every round but, approaching Saturday’s Premiership semi-finals, there is no escaping the expectation on Leicester to deliver.

To illustrate their resurgence, they are unbeaten in the league at home all season. A thumping opening-day win over Exeter and a last-gasp victory over Saracens add to the sense that Leicester are destined for a return to Twickenham for their first final in nine years and, if their form has not quite been making as many headlines in recent weeks, it is because their playoff place was wrapped up long ago.

The fact that they host Northampton on Saturday adds spice to proceedings and certainly the Saints are the form side in the league with six bonus-point wins in their past seven matches. But should Leicester’s forwards, led by the indomitable Ellis Genge in his last Tigers appearance at Welford Road, get the upper hand they are expected to, it is hard to see the visitors gaining the platform from which to unleash their swashbuckling attack.

All of which may seem to set Leicester up for a monumental fall but there is a steeliness to them under Borthwick. Their limitations may have been exposed by Leinster in Europe but lessons have been learned from that defeat and after so many lean years in the Premiership there is a determination to seize the opportunity on Saturday.

“When you have for a while not been anywhere near the playoffs, watching it from