Croft made the most of his opportunities when he was coming up through the Tigers ranks and the likes of Martin Corry, Louis Deacon, Ben Kay and Lewis Moody were away on international duty.
Now he is one of seven Tigers players named in the England squad ahead of the RBS 6 Nations. Four of his Tigers teammates are in the England Saxons group training to face Ireland Wolfhounds this Saturday while Martin Castrogiovanni is in the Italy squad.
With an eye to the Six Nations period, Tigers gave first ever Heineken Cup appearances to fly-half George Ford, lock Graham Kitchener and hooker Jimmy Stevens, when they came off the bench in the second half of Saturday’s win over Aironi.
Tigers go into the internationals fourth in the Aviva Premiership, second in LV= Cup Pool 2 and unbeaten in their last eight domestic fixtures and Croft says Leicester have the squad to keep going strong.
“When those boys came off the bench against Aironi they stood up,” said Croft, the Heineken man-of-the-match in the win over Aironi.
“The club is in a good place in the Aviva Premiership to push on there and we’ve got the LV= Cup in the next couple of weeks, which is a massive challenge for us.
“Regardless of who goes away on international duty we have the players here to keep going strong,” added the Academy graduate.
