RUGBY: DIARY:Despite their shortcomings, Leicester, as they have proved with victories on the road over Bath and Harlequins, will relish Saturday's Leinster clash

IT SEEMS trite to suggest the Leicester Tigers represent a formidable hurdle for Leinster when they arrive at the Aviva Stadium next weekend given their obvious pedigree in English rugby and the Heineken Cup, twice former winners of the latter tournament, but it is their current form rather than past achievements that makes them so dangerous.

The Tigers will turn up mentally and physically strong and present about as tough a draw as Leinster could have been handed, given the teams remaining in the European Cup. Some teams don’t travel well but that’s not the case with the current Leicester side. Two seasons ago their away form was a concern but that’s no longer the case.

In recent times they went to Bath and inflicted the heaviest defeat their hosts have suffered at the venue. Before that they had travelled to Wales in the European Cup and destroyed the Scarlets in their own backyard.

I was listening to Tigers’ outhalf and playmaker Toby Flood last week and he spoke about how the team were in the midst of their own mini-tour with away matches to Bath, Harlequins and Leinster. Leicester won the first two but hopefully might have to settle for two from three in terms of victories.

When you’re on the road it can give a team clarity because you spend a lot of time together in hotels and there are very few distractions from rugby matters. Leicester are the Man United of rugby, the team everyone else wants to beat. They have primacy in the city over their soccer brethren, an unusual state of affairs when examining the general rule. Training facilities are arguably the best in the country, and they were the first English club to introduce a canteen system to directly monitor players’ food intake.

They are a very tight-knit club and when signing players look beyond their playing ability; the personality of the player is vital too. Take, for example, the likes of Craig Newby, Scott Hamilton, Martin Castrogiovanni and Thomas Waldrom, all of whom have bought into the culture to become top players: only Castro would have arrived with an international-sized reputation. The Italian turned down silly money from France to stay at Leicester, although in all probability his decision was influenced by Geordan Murphy threatening him with a meat cleaver: the two are partners in a restaurant.

Leicester boast a voracious work ethic. It matters what you do on a daily basis, not who you are.

A member of the London Irish backroom staff, Andre Quinn, was at a recent sports science conference and one of the speakers was former England manager Steve McClaren. He spoke about his time at Manchester United and how Alex Ferguson would constantly be banging on his window to get the players to come in long after training had finished. The corollary at Arsenal, according to McClaren, was that the players would come in do their training and be gone at midday.

Leicester is a community club, the players live locally and they socialise together. It creates a very strong bond. Geordie (Murphy) will be a loss but in Hamilton the Tigers have a player with a good rugby brain. They play a power game based on a corrosive scrum, excellent lineout and abrasive ball-carriers. Leicester look to pummel teams into submission. They keep up the pressure until the cracks appear. They are quite happy to build the scoreboard with three-pointers and only up the tempo when it suits them. They view the scrum as a weapon; who wouldn’t when you have Dan Cole to start and Castro to close out the game, or vice versa?

Their lineout is excellent, both offensively and defensively. They can get three pods in the air, which is a decent feat under the new laws and really tough to call against. Newby jumps at the front with a one-man lift, while Tom Croft, Louis Deacon and George Skivington move up and down the line. They’re a well drilled unit.

Leicester have live lineout and scrum sessions in training. Crucially they’re able to do this because of the size of their squad. We couldn’t do this at London Irish because we don’t have 45 players and couldn’t afford the risks of “going live”, so to speak.

There is huge competition at the club and no one is untouchable. You look at a guy like Jordan Crane, who is putting pressure on Waldrom, and that applies right throughout the positions.

Leinster will need to use quick throws from their back three and shorten the lineouts in an attempt to take Leicester out of their routine. I think they’ll go with Kevin McLaughlin to try to counter the Tigers’ lineout options because the last thing a team wants is to let the English team maul you to death on receipt of cheap lineout ball.

Waldrom and Newby have good rugby brains, the nous to run a game, choose the right lines and exploit opposition weaknesses. They also possess big carriers behind the scrum in the Tuilagi brothers.

Manu Tuilagi, in the centre, can be a little naïve in chasing the big hits but one statistic Leinster should note is that according to the official data, he is third in the list for most defenders beaten having played half as many matches as the two players above him.

His midfield partner, Anthony Allen, is having a brilliant season while despite their showing with England in Dublin, Ben Youngs and Flood have excelled for their club.

Leinster, though, may find some heart from the statistics.

Leicester are third from bottom in terms of the number of offloads – they prefer that power game – have the highest number of missed tackles and the third highest turnovers conceded.

Despite these shortcomings, Leicester, as they have proved with victories, on the road over Bath and Harlequins will relish Saturday’s assignment.

They won’t be fazed by the occasion, the atmosphere or the venue. They’ll love nothing more than coming over and upsetting the formbook – it’s not often they’re regarded as underdogs – and for those England internationals who suffered recently at Lansdowne Road that’s going to be a massive motivation.

Leinster will have to win this match on the merit of their performance on the day. They’re certainly good enough to do that but they’ll need to be operating close to their best.