Build up to the Premiership final

[tigerburnie]

Jeremy, which team out of Leicester and Northampton do you think will win the Premiership final?

Despite Saints' fantastic performance in their win against Saracens, Leicester look so strong. I believe Tigers have the mental edge over their east Midlands neighbours and will win on 25 May.

So Guscott has us as the winners and it seems so do most pundits, is this the kiss of death or is this the pressure we have to absorb and motivate us to victory?
I really believe we have to take another step up, even though we have this mental edge over Saints, they have nothing to lose and should not be as tense as us. Big test of our leadership to get the team focussed this coming week.Confident that Murphy and Flood can do the job, as Salvi said,all the preparation has been done, it's now time for the players to deliver.

COME ON YOU TIGERRRrrrrsssss

[The Ightham Tiger]

Beware the kiss of death.

We were heavy favourites to lift the HC in 2007 having swept all before us, before Wasps came and spoiled the party.

Every opposition that we face at a final deserves suitable respect

I'm confident that we can win, but that win cannot be taken for granted, even if predicted by any number of pundits.

Don't forget that our record in finals is not great

[tigerburnie]

http://leicestertigersultrasubmarines.b ... ecord.html

With gratefull thanks to sk88 taken from the unoffy.
This would show our record in finals and getting to them is actually very good,doesn't mean we are bound to win this one, but you just know we have a team good enough to do it.

COME ON YOU TIGERRRrrrsssss

[Soggypitch]

Yes we will be the favourites with the pundits and bookies. One telling comment in S Barnes column on Sky Sports this week is that in their last 20 matches v the "big 3" (Tigers, Quins, Sarries) Saints have won just 3 times.

However that does not mean we are certain to win, this is effectively a Cup Final and we have to be at our best to beat what will be a very highly motivated team (4th best in the league not withstanding).

We have the better players over all (especially in the backs), but this is a team game and we have to get our basics absolutely right and keep our discipline.

if we do that IMO classwill out and we will win!!

[Smurphswillgetya]

You just have to look at Wigan in the footie! Nothing is certain. Then again certain people will demand victory or heads!

[vin rouge]

there is veryy little pressure on saints- everyone, even most of their own fans i would imagine expect them to lose.

to me that makes them very dangerous (but we will still win!)

[Rykard]

it depends which saints team turns up. can they do 'two finals' - no-one expected them to beat sarries - but then sarries changed the way they normally played and then didn't play too well and lost charlie H... may that result flattered a little...

if we turn up as we did against quins and as we did at their place earlier in the season we should win.

hoping for a complete battering tbh.. shut them up for a while

[Smurphswillgetya]

Don't worry about a ting 'cos every little ting is gonna be alright, singing don't worry..... Come on everyone sing along.

Don't worry be happy!

[Rizzo]

I always believe we will win.

Slightly wondering why the OP has started his post with addressing "Jeremy" just curiousity

[Rykard]

I always believe we will win.

Slightly wondering why the OP has started his post with addressing "Jeremy" just curiousity

I suspect it was taken off Jeremy Guscott's bbc blog

[x24jue]

And the Ref is Wayne Barnes

[Skin_and_Muscle]

And the Ref is Wayne Barnes

I thought Barnes dealt with the Saints/Tigers game very well last time round. He was consistent, evidenced by his handling of the two deliberate knock ons from each side.

(He may even cut us a little slack to level the score after that ridiculous sin-binning of Waldrom in last year's final . . . maybe!)

[Tigerbeat]

RFU referee Wayne Barnes will take charge of next Saturday’s Aviva Premiership Rugby final at Twickenham Stadium between Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers.
It will be the fifth time Barnes has refereed the Premiership final, having held the whistle for the 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 finals.
Barnes has refereed 29 games so far this season in all competitions, including Leicester’s recent visit to Northampton on March 30. The Tigers were in fine fettle that day – beating their midlands rivals 36-8.

Match officials for Aviva Premiership final, Saturday May 25

· Referee: Wayne Barnes
· AR1 / Res: Ref Greg Garner
· AR2: JP Doyle
· No 4 / Res AR: Stuart Terheege
· No 5: Luke Pearce
· TMO: Graham Hughes
· TK: Mike Hamlin

[MrPartridge]

Not that bothered about Barnes referring the game. As noted by others, he was very good for the Saints v Tigers game in March. Then again - 2 good matches in a row for Wayne might be pushing it a bit

What does surprise me is that this will be his 5th AP Final since 2008! Is he really that far ahead of all the other referees of his generation? He's hardly Pierluigi Collina! Thinking about it... I'd probably prefer Pierluigi over Wayne...

[TomWeston]

What does surprise me is that this will be his 5th AP Final since 2008! Is he really that far ahead of all the other referees of his generation? He's hardly Pierluigi Collina! Thinking about it... I'd probably prefer Pierluigi over Wayne...

Collina would probably know enough to either look himself or have his AR's look and give him their opinion as to why scrums have collapsed, as they certainly will with Stains props. I'm not convinced that Wayne really wants to know, although he might well ask the TMO to look at whether the Tigers pass 5 minutes earlier was any less than 30 degrees backwards from the horizontal. Just checking, mind!