Leicester Tigers can go one better this season – Jordan Crane

By mcrowson tigers news martin crowson www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/tigers

Jordan Crane believes Leicester Tigers have the capabilities to go one better than last season and erase the memory of their painful Heineken Cup final defeat.

The 23-year-old No 8 played a huge part in Tigers' tilt at two titles last season as they hunted down both the Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup.

After beating London Irish at Twickenham to lift the league title, a second double in three seasons eluded them with defeat by Leinster in the European final at Murrayfield.

Crane says he expects the club to be right in the mix for both titles again this season, however, and he hopes they will have learnt some valuable lessons from coming so close last time around.

Tigers leave on Friday for a pre-season trip to France, where they play Montpelier next Wednesday and Castres on Saturday.

Crane said: "We have got to look to go one better this season.

"The boys that are still here know what it takes to get to those two finals.

"We need to make sure that we don't fall at the final hurdle this time around and there is no reason why we can't do that.

"We have got the squad and we have some good boys from the Academy who will step up, like they did last season."

Crane pointed out that with all the instability at the club over the past two years, the playing squad had still done remarkably well to achieve success.

"There has been so much chopping and changing at the club recently, and to come away from that with four finals in two years shows you how well we are doing," said the former Leeds back-rower.

"We have the sort of stability that we haven't had for a few years and that means that we have everything to gain.

"If you look at the unsteady platform we had last year, it was remarkable what we achieved.

"There was a new head coach coming in and then he left. But the boys stuck together and we came close to winning two trophies. If we start better this time around, hopefully, it won't be as hard come May.

"It's a shame that we have lost a few of the boys to France (Ben Kayser and Julien Dupuy), but keeping the majority of the squad together was good. The core of the squad is still there and there are a lot of young boys together who I hope will stay at Leicester for the forseeable future and take the club where they want to go."

Tigers winger Will Hurrell has joined Coventry on a season-long loan deal. Hurrell, 21, played a valuable role for Cov last season when he scored two tries in eight appearances while on loan.