Leicester Tigers eyeing 2022 Premiership Final repeat
Leicester Tigers are looking for a 12th Gallagher Premiership title by repeating their 2022 Final exploits.
With the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final 2025 fast approaching, the race to reach the competition’s showpiece is heating up. With just four places in the play-offs up for grabs, the current top four of Bath, Bristol Bears, Leicester Tigers and Gloucester are best-placed to take advantage going into the final games of the season.
Tigers, a team woven into the fabric of both the Premiership and the England team, are the only one of those four sides to have won a Premiership title recently.
The Midlanders won a thrilling final against Saracens at Allianz Stadium to win the 2021-22 Premiership title, ensuring the season concluded in the same way it started.
Having led the standings the entire season – becoming the first team to achieve that feat in the process – a young Tigers team blossomed in front of our eyes.
Established England internationals like Dan Cole, Ben Youngs, Ellis Genge and George Ford all starred that season, but a host of future or youthful England players also helped Tigers to their 11th Premiership title.
Among those, Freddie Steward, Ollie Chessum, George Martin and Joe Heyes made an impact on the pitch, while Steve Borthwick, now England Senior Men head coach, steered the ship as head coach.
Even Richard Wigglesworth, who is on Borthwick’s coaching team at England and now finds himself an assistant coach for the British & Irish Lions, started at scrum half in the game.
The thrilling final was in the balance right until the death, with the two sides level until Freddie Burns’ drop goal put Tigers ahead with just 26 seconds remaining.
From Tigers to England
The English core of Tigers’ title-winners have gone on to form a significant part of the national team, not least of all Borthwick who was named head coach just six months later.
Steward, for example, was their poster boy and at just 21 years old played a crucial role in nullifying Saracens’ attack; ever reliable under the high ball and steady as a rock in defence, he helped keep Saracens try-less the entire game.
He was named young player of the year and England Men’s player of the year at the Rugby Players’ Association Awards in 2022, and was key in England’s run to the 2023 World Cup semi-final.
Steward was joined in that World Cup by Chessum, who made his England debut against Italy just four months before winning the Premiership.
Since making his debut, the second row has gone on to win 28 Test caps by the age of 24 and played in all but one of England’s 2025 Six Nations matches.
Like Steward, he also played the 80 minutes against Saracens and was joined in the pack for the final 15 minutes by Martin.
Martin, the hard-hitting second row, has seven fewer caps but is a year younger than his Tigers teammate. The 23-year-old started England’s first two 2025 Six Nations games, but injury kept him out of the final three.
In the front row, Genge, Cole and Heyes share more than 200 international caps between them, with Cole making up the bulk of them as England Men’s record cap holder among the forwards.
The trio all played a part in Leicester’s success against Saracens, with Cole’s tighthead apprentice Heyes replacing him for the final 27 minutes.
While Genge has been in the England squad since 2016, he has progressed into the leadership group and served as Maro Itoje’s vice-captain during this year’s Six Nations. Heyes on the other hand is still in the early stages of his international career, but played in all five of England’s Six Nations games and even scored his first international try against Wales.
Some members of that title-winning team such as Genge and Ford have moved clubs, but the Tigers still retain a core of English talent that will be hoping to add to their 2021-22 silverware come the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final on Saturday 14 June.
