The term ‘anyone can beat anyone on their day' is an overused cliche in sport, but none is more appropriate to describe this season's National One as newly promoted Leicester Lions have beaten both of last season's title challengers Rams and Sale FC in the first block of the season.
Gareth Collins' side hoisted the National Two West title at the end of the previous campaign and entered the third tier for the first time. Collins said before the season started that his side would be up against it from the start, with a small playing squad and little financial backing meaning that survival was the primary aim.
However, wins against Rams and Sale FC, who were a whisker away from gaining promotion to the Championship last term, have shown that they can compete at this level with the club benefitting from a new partnership with Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers.
Collins told The Rugby Paper: “I've found it really tough but that's no surprise. We expected it to be challenging and it definitely has been. At the same time it's been thoroughly enjoyable. It's been a rollercoaster few weeks with the win at the start and the win at the end with some frustration in between. It's been really enjoyable and we're learning constantly, so hopefully some more wins will come our way.
“We've had a bit of a turnover of players, it's a very different looking squad. The core of it is the same but we've had about a 50 per cent change. It was always going to take some time to blend players from different sides –Northampton Saints, Leicester Tigers, along with our own. It's an exciting time with those partnerships and some of the young players we've got in are hugely talented players.”
Leicester Lions have come unstuck in between their two triumphs and Collins says he'll be following the same preparation styles that worked well in those games for future contests.
He said: “We went into that first week just desperately wanting to make a good account of ourselves and didn't really talk a lot about winning. I'd organised a pre-season game against Coventry in the build up to really try and overload and play against a side that's way above our level.
“On the opening day we put ourselves in a position and just snuck over the line. Since then, Sale haven't done as well as expected. I think that shows where the league is at this year. There's been a lot of teams at either end beating each other. Winning that game perhaps created some false confidence in ourselves and then we got stung in the next couple of games when there was opposition that we thought could be beaten.
“Then we came to Rams and that was the first time we hadn't talked about winning and making a good account of ourselves against a top side. We've learnt about preparation, focusing on us rather than the result.”
