Michael Cheika spoke to the media from Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Tuesday ahead of a huge clash in The Run In.
Second plays third in the Gallagher Premiership on Friday night and, after a weekend without a fixture, the Leicester Tigers Head Coach was quizzed on his squad’s fitness, the British & Irish Lions selection debate, how he feels as he comes to the end of his Tigers tenure and previews the Sale Sharks fixture, plus much more...
ON INJURIES
"They (Cracknell and Rogerson) both trained well today so it looks like they'll be available off the back of that."
"James Cronin is coming back into contention as well, Freddie Steward was struggling a bit after last week after those two clashes under the high ball. He was a bit worse for wear that he's back up and running as well."
KEY FOCUS
"The focus always on winning for us."
"I think, for us, nothing should change. The way we've been playing is a bit more of the traditional way, it's not as laissez-faire or as open as, say, a Gloucester or a Bristol.
"But every team does what they need to do to get the points at the end of the day."
TIME AT TIGERS ENDING
"No, not really (when asked whether he can feel his time with the squad coming to an end) - I'll be the other way around."
"Why should my approach be any different on the day to day training, whether I'm staying here next year or not? There's a job to do for this year and that has always been the case.
"The game is in front of us right now and that is the only thing that counts. It's about preparing well for that game and the challenge that is coming our way on Friday night."
FEROCITY OF SALE DEFENCE
"They're high in the table - the run they've been on over the last number of weeks you'd almost call them favourites for the whole competition."
"I think that the only way for us to succeed is to play our game. How we try to defend ourselves, how we look to attack and the opportunities we take that are created through our hard work in attack."
WHETHER TIGERS NEED TO WIN 2 OF 3 TO GET A PLAY OFF SPOT
"Ah mate, I've got no idea. People have been asking me since four, five weeks ago about all the different calculations required but I just want to win on Friday night."
"You've got to take care of what is in the present, that's what counts."
ON LIONS SELECTION
"I hope that I've been able to help the Leicester players who are in contention and give them the best possible preparation to be selected. It's a really important piece of international rugby to be involved with and I want as many of the boys to be there as possible."
"Without a doubt the announcement of the squad, any type of news it's related to the British Lions series will be, will be big in Australia, the stadiums will be full everywhere and so they should be.
"You're getting the cream of northern hemisphere rugby players coming down to take on Australia."
ON HIS 'PITCH' TO ANDY FARRELL TO TAKE LEICESTER PLAYERS
"Just watch the games, you know. You can't be selling players, right? It's not marketing. You watch the games, you see what the guys can do. Ollie, Nicky Smith, Freddie Stewart, Jack (van Poorvliet) you've got Tommy Reffell they've got specific things that a coach might want in that series."
"Some of those guys have been outstanding this year and even a guy like Joe Heyes, even though he hasn't been the starter, maybe, for England, he presents something different that the coaches could be looking for.
"They'll (the British & Irish Lions coaches) look at the more specific cases of what they need, either for the weekend or the midweek team, because I'm sure they'll have those in mind and there might be some specific needs.
"I don't think we need to go and sell. We need to prepare the boys so that they have the platform to be able to play as well as possible to impress the selectors."
