Johnson confident of fresh start

Leicester captain Martin Johnson believes his side are in the perfect position to bring down the curtain on two years of misery at Welford Road.

The once-feared Tigers have failed to land any silverware from their last two campaigns and have been forced to qualify for the Heineken Cup through the wildcard play-offs.

Steps to ensure the same thing does not happen again were taken last season when rugby director Dean Richards was replaced by John Wells, while an over-sized squad has been trimmed down.

“We’re not going to sweep what happened over the last two seasons under the carpet. It’s part of our history. You have good times and bad times and they’re both important,” said Johnson

“This year we’ve finally got the proper coaching staff in place. Everything’s sorted. We’ve had very big squads in the past and the salary cap takes its toll, so we’ve cut down on numbers.”