Tigers a threatened species

Heineken Cup: Europe's dominant force for two years must lick their wounded into shape to defend their territory

Leicester dispatched 10 players to the five-star splendour of the Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot for England squad training last Sunday evening. Five were sent back the following morning because they were unfit to train and another three returned to the Midlands on Tuesday. Only two Tigers, Martin Johnson and Ben Kay, lasted the course. Leicester will open their defence of the Heineken Cup on Friday with a thorn in their paw.

Of the eight – Martin Corry, Neil Back, Lewis Moody, Austin Healey, Ollie Smith, Tim Stimpson, Dorian West and Graham Rowntree – who failed to pass the Clive Woodward fitness test, Healey is the biggest cause of concern for club and country. He has a stomach-groin injury which may require an operation.

In the interim, with the No 2 stand-off Sam Vesty injured in the bust-up against Bristol last week, Healey could be forced into paying Leicester lip service. Although the Australian Rod Kafer can play No 10, the decision to allow Andy Goode to join Saracens in the close season is beginning to look like a rare mistake by Dean Richards.

"In recent weeks we've been picking players who are less injured than others,'' Sam Rossiter-Stead, the Tigers spokesman, said. "It's like an episode out of Casualty.''

Painkilling injections have been a feature of the dressing room. So much for professionalism.

The defeat at Bristol was Leicester's third successive failure on the road. When they won the league two seasons ago they lost only three games; when they took it for a fourth consecutive time last season they suffered four defeats, so this is a rum start indeed for England's finest.

Not that it will influence their preparations for the Heineken Cup which, uniquely, they have won for the last two years. Leicester open in Pool One against Neath at The Gnoll next Friday evening before a full house of 8,500. "Even if we had three times as many supporters our lot still wouldn't be heard,'' Rossiter-Stead said. "It's a hard place to visit.''

Before travelling to South Wales to meet the Welsh All Blacks, Leicester will be reminded of their glorious campaigns in the Heineken Cup at a celebration dinner on Wednesday. A cast of 600, including past and present players, will attend the event at Leicester City's new Walkers Stadium where Tony O'Reilly, a Tiger from 1958-61, is the guest speaker. Three Heineken Cups will be on display, two replicas in the club's ownership plus the real thing.

In general the Welsh clubs have not been setting the Celtic League alight although Neath have made an impression, beating Llanelli and Swansea, two of the clubs that last season attempted to establish an élite six pack. It would have excluded Neath, despite the fact they nearly won the Welsh championship.

Elite? That's a laugh. Cardiff lost £1.6 million last season, Newport £1.7m, sums that exceed Neath's turnover. Take away the overseas players and Newport, Swansea and Bridgend could barely raise a decent squad between them.

"There are enough good players in the country for four teams, enough administrators for two teams and enough money for one,'' Lyn Jones, the Neath coach, said. "Playing against the Irish and the Scots in the Celtic League has been a good experience and what we've learnt from it is that you need a good kicking game and big men up front. We've had to beef up our pack. What Leicester have learnt because of their record is that every team makes an extra effort to beat them. Nobody's going to lie down.

"Whatever team they bring will be formidable. You don't win two European Cups without having an exceptionally strong squad. We've got a nice blend with some useful youngsters coming through and these top fixtures will tell us what stage we've reached.''

Leicester lost at Pontypridd two seasons ago and at Llanelli last season but still went on to lift the cup.

Munster, the beaten finalists at the Millennium Stadium last May, begin their Heineken Cup journey at Gloucester next Saturday and yesterday's Celtic encounter with Neath at The Gnoll would have given them an idea of what to expect when they enter the bearpit called Kingsholm.

Once again, to meet the demands of seven different television producers, the Heineken is sprayed over a weekend with a bewildering array of kick-off times. The only Sunday match is at Franklin's Gardens, between two former champions, Northampton and Ulster.

The Parker Pen sideshow, featuring such luminaries as Nick Mallett's Stade Français, Bath, Saracens and Harle-quins, has a new knockout format. Clubs have been seeded and the first two weekends they will be engaged in matches home and away. The losers enter the Shield, the winners advance to the Challenge Cup and whoever lifts that in May earns qualification to the Heineken Cup. Except that by then it may be called something else.

The brewers are in the last of their four-year sponsorship and although they may renew, other options are being considered. Perhaps Parker, on the grounds that the pen is mightier than the shield, may care to put their ink on a bigger contract. Derek McGrath, chief executive of European Rugby Cup, said they had decided against copying the Champions' League, which has a number of sponsors rather than a single benefactor. "At this stage of development we believe a title sponsor would be the best way forward,'' McGrath said.

What has been decided is that this season's European final on 24 May will be played at Lansdowne Road (capacity 49,500) as opposed to Twickenham (75,000). The Rugby Football Union, which has a contract with Tetley's, hosts the England v Barbarians match scheduled for 25 May but, equally importantly, Dublin was seen as a more suitable watering hole for an end-of-season celebration than Tony Hancock suburbia.

Dublin, London and Cardiff have all hosted two Heineken Cup finals, which means, of course, that Murrayfield is the odd man out. Perhaps it is not so surprising considering the anonymity of Scottish teams since the competition began, although there are signs that this could change.

"We believe finals will be held in Scotland and Italy,'' McGrath said. "I can't put a timescale on it but when we set ourselves a target we generally reach it more quickly than expected. When we do arrive in Scotland and Italy we will know the tournament has truly become an outstanding international sports event.'' Leicester, not to mention Heineken, already thought it was.