LEICESTER TIGERS are hooked on FA Cup fever as they look to copy Brendan Rodgers’ history-making Foxes.
It used to be the Tigers, not the Foxes, who were the trophy-hungry hope for the Midlands city.
But ahead of Friday night’s Challenge Cup final against Montpellier, England fly-half George Ford is feeding off what happened to their neighbours just half a mile from Welford Road.
As Tigers chase their first major trophy in eight years, Ford said: “I don’t think there’s extra pressure.
“But, we as Leicester Tigers, were unbelievably proud of what Leicester City did in the FA Cup.
“I think they went into the game as underdogs – which I think we are as well.
“And going and producing a performance like they did, and the way they played – the courage they played with, the workrate, the effort, the skill, in a big game on the big stage, was incredible to watch.
“So it inspires us. It definitely inspires us seeing the football team Leicester City go and beat a massive team like Chelsea in the FA Cup final, which they’d never done before. It’s incredible.”
Steve Borthwick’s current crop of Tigers are a shadow of the famous Martin Johnson era during the late 90s and early noughties when they won back-to-back Heineken Champions Cups and five Premierships.
When asked if that was a burden, Ford said: “No, not really.
“I don’t get sick of hearing about it at all. Leicester’s is a quite well-followed club.
“It’s traditionally a big club in English rugby because of the tradition, the history and how successful they’ve been in the past.
“We’re a different team to where that team was – a different era, and we’ve got to work hard to go and win things ourselves and build a bit of a memory bank that we can be proud of as well.
“But, no, I don’t get sick of hearing it at all. Those teams in the past that went and won all those trophies obviously deserved to do so.”
And he added: “I definitely feel like we’re going in the right direction, we’re improving.
“We’ve improved in a lot of areas this year, but there’s a lot more growth in us as well.
“I feel it more because I’m on the field and it’s a massive difference to last year and the year before.
“The belief, the foundations of our game. . . we just feel like we’re getting better and we’re on the right track.
“That’s all you want to feel – that you’re improving yourself and you’re part of a team getting better as well.
“If you keep doing that you know you’ll put yourself in the mix at the very least to win things.”
