'It was one of the worst games of rugby I've probably ever watched'

It was a Halloween nightmare of a game, instantly forgettable by most unfortunate to watch it. But Leicester boss Geoff Parling didn’t hesitate to reference the 10-8 win over his former club Newcastle on October 31st as a key step on the road to the PREM Rugby Cup semi-finals when chatting to the media this week.

Leicester had ground out wins against Saracens and Harlequins in their first two Cup games before rolling up their sleeves in round three and leaving Kingston Park with four precious points. A thoroughly disjointed first half ended 5-0 to the Red Bulls, but a breakaway try from George Pearson and two excellent kicks from Orlando Bailey secured Tigers the scrappiest of victories.

A win and a loss against Northampton followed before Leicester completed the double over Newcastle and then booked their place in the semis with a round to spare with a 31-26 victory away to Saracens. A 33-27 win at home to Harlequins rounded off a dominant, but hard-fought, pool campaign.

Looking back, Parling believes the Cup run thus far has had Leicester’s DNA running right through it.

“When I look at the games, we’ve shown good grit and resilience. We were down at Sarries, we came back. Quins hurt us early with a couple of set-piece tries, we came back,” he said.

“I look at the Newcastle away game early in the season, it was one of the worst games of rugby I’ve probably ever watched. It was terrible, but we gritted it out, and we managed to find a way, and that’s what we’ve done in general, we’ve found a way.

“You want to make sure you go out there and perform now, because in general, we’ve worked hard and we’ve put ourselves in an a quality position.”

The Tigers only dropped six points in their march to the top of Pool B, finishing as top seeds and earning a home semi-final against Pool A runners-up Bath.

A win over Bath this Sunday would see them return to Mattioli Woods Welford Road for the final and the chance to win their first piece of silverware in four years.

“Winning things can be quite rare for people, people can go their whole careers, play for a long, long time and never get the chance to win anything. We have got an opportunity to now go and do something,” Parling said.