No bus parade in city for champions of England Leicester Tigers

No open-top bus parade will be held in Leicester to celebrate the Tigers amazing victory to secure their 11th English Championship. The club said that, as in previous years, many of the team were simply not around to enjoy a city celebration.

Six of the players flew out to Australia on Tuesday to play for England and there are also players who are off taking part in tours with the Argentina, Wales and the England Under-20s team. So despite the offer of a celebration by the city mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, it's not going to happen.

A Leicester Tigers spokesman said: "We would love to be able to share the team’s success with the Tigers community and thank our magnificent supporters personally. Their contribution is key to everything the team does on the field and they play a huge part in the season home and away.

“We are also thankful for the support of Sir Peter Soulsby and the Mayor’s office for suggestions of a celebration event. The rugby calendar, however, means we already have a dozen players away on international tours which begin within a couple of days of the Gallagher Premiership Final and the rest of the playing squad are on their contractual summer break, meaning we are unable to get everyone together again at this point.

“Players return for pre-season training at different points of the summer, depending on their commitments elsewhere, and then we are very quickly back into the new campaign."

But there will be a chance for rugby fans to see the Premiership trophy. The silverware - which was carried around by celebrating players in the days following the win - will take its own tour around the region over the coming weeks.

The spokesman said: "We are taking the Premiership trophy on tour to Tigers events