Leicester Tigers

The Leicester Tigers, officially known as the Leicester Football Club is a professional rugby football union club from England that currently plays in the Aviva Premiership, the top tier of English professional rugby, the Anglo Welsh Cup as well as the Heineken Cup where the team has been a regular over the past few years.

Formed in 1880, The Tigers is also one of the oldest clubs still playing in the top flight of English professional rugby. Under the tutelage of Richard Cockerill, the Director of Rugby of the club, the Leicester Tigers is considered to be one of the perennial contenders for the English league title in every season and is one of the most star studded sides.

The club is the most successful English rugby club since the league format was introduced in the country in 1987, winning the Premiership a record nine times since then – three more titles than their nearest rivals Bath Rugby and the London Wasps.

The Tigers have also appeared in the playoff finals of the Premiership a record eight successive times since 2005. The team, that plays its home games at Welford Road, has never finished lower than sixth in the Premiership and is also one of only four clubs that has never been relegated from the top tier of English professional rugby.

Another unique feat about the Leicester Tigers is that they have played in each and every season of the European Cup or the Heineken Cup in every season that English clubs have been a part of the tournament.

The Tigers have won the Heineken Cup twice in 2001 and 2002 and lost in the finals three times in 1997, 2007 and 2009. The Tigers contest the East Midlands Derby with the Northampton Saints, one of the biggest domestic derbies in English professional rugby.