We’ve all enjoyed cheering the guys on in national jerseys over recent weeks – especially as we’ve seen our own Tom Youngs establish himself as a serious international contender this season – but now it’s all about the club again.
This is where the players earn their corn, what Cockers calls “the bread and butter”. To the Tigers supporters it is also the cream, the jam and the cherry on top, if that is not to spread the metaphor menu too thinly.
Now, after a fortnight’s gap without a game, there are just five matches remaining in the Aviva Premiership league season. You may argue that is not long enough to make up ground in the event of any slip-ups in the international periods, but these are the cards that are dealt and that is what we have to get on with. Besides, it’s not as if Tigers are off the pace.
Without really hitting their straps so far, our team are still in the top four places in the Aviva Premiership table and are one of the last eight teams standing in Europe’s top club competition.
This, though, is where it is really at. There are just five games left to secure one of those top four places and a slot in the semi-finals. Top two, of course, would be even better with a home game in the knockout stages as the reward.
The absence of action over the last few weeks and the long wait for a home game will surely increase the passion and the volume when the Tigers finally come home on April 14.
But for now, how about tough trips to Exeter and Northampton, followed by a European quarter-final in Toulon? Count me in.
