Van Poortvliet ‘excited with difficult challenge’

EXCITEMENT: Leicester Tiger's Jack Van Poortvliet (centre) clears the ball during the Heineken Champions Cup round of sixteen match at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium. Pic: Tim Goode/PA Wire.

There’s three ways of parsing the soundbites from Leicester this week. The first is probably the wisest: ignore them. If that doesn’t work then you could view them as the utterings of a team that has mentally given in already, or one that is just approaching this as a nothing-to-lose hope across the Irish Sea.

Interim head coach Richard Wigglesworth has lauded Leinster as the “envy” of the world game. His players have sought to kill their hosts with kindnesses. Whatever their approach, they won’t be carrying the burden of expectation on their shoulders.