If these Tigers are to belatedly begin burning bright, someone needs to light the flames of a revival — and fast.
With five games to go in the Premiership season, English rugby’s most decorated club — with 10 titles and two European Cups — are five points off the bottom.
Relegation is unthinkable for a club who have produced some of the game’s greats. Martin Johnson, Dean Richards, Dusty Hare, Rory Underwood, Neil Back and so many more have known little other than success at Welford Road.
Ben Youngs (left) and Tom Youngs (right) insists that Leicester Tigers will stay up
The pair admit that the club has lost its aura and that teams 'smell blood' when they face them
So the current crop are desperate to ignite and not make the blackest blot in Leicester’s history as they stare the yawning trap-door square in the eye for the first time.
Last year, when the Tigers missed out on the end-of-year playoffs for the first time for 14 seasons, club captain Tom Youngs described himself as ‘heart-broken, hurt and emotional’, so what on earth does he feel like now?
‘Gosh I know, you don’t think it could get any worse until it does,’ the skipper exclusively tells Sportsmail.
‘People smell blood when they come to Welford Road, we have let up a little bit, have probably lost a little bit of confidence, and you end up down the bottom of the pile.’
Youngs, 32, and his brother, England scrum-half Ben, 29, are this squad’s longest-serving players – along with centre Matt Smith who has been out injured since December – having broken into the first team during the 2006-07 season.
The club reached the European Cup final, losing to Wasps, and won their seventh league title. Gradually, though, success has dried up to the point where Leicester have played 27 matches in all competitions this season and lost 20. Harsh realities are starting to hit home.
Now the Youngs brothers are ready to make a stark admission. ‘I wouldn’t disagree that we have lost our identity and our aura,’ revealed Ben. ‘I would say we have,’ added Tom. ‘When you have lost as many games as we have at Welford Road you do lose something. As players, you scratch your head.’
While wrestling with what has happened this year, Tom concludes that Leicester’s gilded history has become a burden. ‘With Leicester one of the things you get is expectation to win something,’ he explains. ‘We’ve tried to chase success by doing what has happened in the past.
Ben Youngs (right) wants the Leicester board to share the responsibility of recent failures
‘The reality is we’re probably Leicester’s Youngs brothers admit club has lost its aura...but insist they’ll stay up hitting the reset button now in some regards, aren’t we?
‘It’s not a problem with this club, because it’s great that the expectation is you have to win, get into the top four, top two, then win silverware, but also it has probably burdened us over the last three or four years.
‘Trying to achieve almost stunted our growth. I think the board have realised that more than ever.’
Ben wants the beleaguered Tigers board who have sacked three head coaches — Richard Cockerill, Aaron Mauger and Matt O’Connor — in the
