Cockerill ready for Clermont challenge

Richard Cockerill insists Clermont’s intimidating home record offers Leicester the chance to make history when the heavyweights clash in Saturday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final.

The 2013 beaten finalists have amassed 74 consecutive victories at the Stade Marcel Michelin in a sequence dating back to 2009 and are overwhelming favourites to defeat the Tigers. Cockerill has invoked the spirit of 2007 when Leicester became the first Heineken Cup team to storm Munster’s Thomond Park stronghold to inspire their passage into the semi-finals.

And having been part of the Tigers side that established a 57-game unbeaten run from 1997 to 2002, the club’s director of rugby knows that level of home dominance can also be a burden.