The talented centre had first-hand experience of the Tigers support when he was part of the Scarlets side which lost 46-10 at Welford Road in last season’s competition.
King, who was voted the best centre in the world by readers of Planet Rugby in 2006, says the ‘wheels fell off’ on that occasion and he says Clermont will try to give the Tigers support nothing to shout about in Saturday’s crunch clash.
“It is always hard going to Leicester,” says New Zealand international King. “I have been there a couple of times with Scarlets
“We were on a bit of a roll coming into that game last season. We had beaten Perpignan at home and we had a pretty good side. We scored a try and then the wheels fell off and we were on the end of it a bit.
“From my experience, as soon as they got the crowd involved and got their noses up, they are a pretty tough team to stop.”
King came off the bench in Stade Marcel Michelin last weekend and is selected to start in place of club captain Aurelien Rougerie, who is ill, on Saturday (1.30pm kick-off).
And he said Pool 4 is still wide open with Tigers, Clermont and Ulster having a chance of qualification for the quarter-finals.
“It’s still wide open,” King says. “There are three teams in with a chance of going through at the moment.
“We know it is going to be a tough game at Leicester. I watched most of last week from the sideline but it looked pretty brutal. They were all putting their body and soul into everything.
“You have to front up physically and mentally against Leicester. If they get on a roll they are hard to stop.”
