Richard Cockerill tells Tigers to avenge Auvergne

Leicester failed to take their chances in France last weekend and they crashed to a 30-12 defeat. Another setback at Welford Road could prove fatal to their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals.

Clermont Auvergne are currently top of pool four – one point ahead of Ulster, who travel to Aironi today, and two ahead of Leicester. Cockerill knows Leicester need to bring a ferocity and a cold-blooded ruthlessness to their performance if they are to avoid being cut adrift.

“Last week’s match was a tough, full-blooded encounter,” said Cockerill. “It was as intense as any international match and we cannot fall off from that level this week. Clermont have an extremely strong squad with quality across the board but the scoreline was not very flattering for us last week. We know we have to be much better in terms of accuracy and, when you get your chances, you have to take them against a top-quality side.”

Leicester have brought Thomas Waldrom in at No 8, while Boris Stankovich takes over at loosehead prop after Marcos Ayerza was ruled out with a wrist injury.

Clermont Auvergne have suffered a blow after losing Georgia’s international prop Davit Zirakashvili with a broken arm.

The Tigers are not the only English club facing an uphill battle to reach the knockout stages. Saracens are the only English club top of their pool.

The leading French clubs have a budget around five times greater than the Aviva Premiership salary cap, while the Irish provinces are well-funded.

“It’s tougher for English clubs to win it now. I think the salary cap has done that,” said Bath director of rugby Sir Ian McGeechan. “There has been a big investment in Ireland in their provinces – and in France – so it’s no surprise that they are the teams we have to beat.”

Bath need to beat defending champions Leinster in Dublin tomorrow to stay in realistic contention, after losing a nail-biting encounter 17-13 at The Rec last weekend.

“It’s 80 minutes to have a real go,” said McGeechan. “We’ll back ourselves to play, we have to do that. It will be a Test match environment. The players have got to make the most of it.”

Bath hope to have a hooker on the bench this weekend after Ross Batty was cleared to join the matchday squad after spending five days in hospital with an infection to a gash in his leg.

London Irish staged a stunning comeback from 14-0 down to beat Racing Metro in Paris last weekend – and head coach Toby Booth has urged his men to capitalise on that performance.

“It was fantastic to win away at Racing Metro last week. We proved that we can compete at the top level in Europe away from home,” he said.

“We’re still very much in this tournament and fighting for our place. It is important we make tomorrow count.”

Also today, Gloucester host Connacht having registered their first win of the European campaign in Galway last week.