When I look back at the season there is one game that stands out - Nottingham away in November. The weather was atrocious, it was bitterly cold and we came under a severe amount of pressure from the home side from the first minute to the last.
I learned a lot about the team’s character that afternoon, particularly in the way they responded to the pressure, and I was very pleased to come away from Meadow Lane with the win.
Since then today’s visitors to the Gardens have become the league’s dark horses, stringing together a superb run of results and tying Exeter in second place in NL1.
Nottingham are renowned for having one of the best packs in the league. It isn’t very often that a team at the top of the table has a forward as their leading try scorer, but in flanker Luke Sherriff Nottingham have just that. They use the lineout and driving maul very effectively, and more than one team this season has been on the receiving end of a powerful drive or two!
But they are far from being a one-dimensional team. Centres Alex Dodge and Matt Smith, for example, have come through the Leicester Academy system and on the evidence of their game against us at Meadow Lane they like to run the ball in all conditions.
Their defence is also outstanding and their competitiveness is shown in the number of bonus points they have won – 20, the same as ourselves. By now it should be clear that we are in for a tough afternoon if we are to continue our winning record.
In one sense our job is done. With last weekend’s win we assured ourselves of Premiership rugby next season. This was our goal at the start of the campaign and to have achieved it with four games still to play is superb and shows how well the players have responded to the challenges we have set them.
As ever, however, we have put memories of that win and anticipation of next season aside in focusing on this afternoon’s match. We haven’t reached the off-season just yet!
We want to win every game we play in, pure and simple. That we have won the league does not dilute that. We know that the four teams we play from now on, beginning with Nottingham this afternoon, will want nothing more than to beat the champions. We do not want that to happen and have prepared for this afternoon’s game no differently than any other so far this season.
Enjoy the game.
