Eurosport - Thu, 01 May 11:26:00 2008
Eurosport rugby expert and World Cup winner Neil Back insists that nothing less than a play-off place will satisfy the ambitions of his club Leicester.
A club as big as Leicester is used to success and our Premiership visit to Newcastle on Sunday is a hugely important occasion for us.
We have a tremendous pedigree of winning trophies at the Tigers; we play to win things and the Premiership represents our last chance for silverware this season.
Having failed to reach the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup, we then made it to the final of the EDF Energy Cup and we are now challenging for a top-four spot in the Premiership.
For a lot of clubs this might be success enough, but not for the Tigers. That is why we have set outselves a target of winning four consecutive games.
We have Newcastle on Sunday, followed by Harlequins the following weekend. If we win both of these we will be in the playoffs and just two wins from successfully defending our Premiership crown.
Newcastle have not had a great season and are struggling back in 10th, although they are clear of relegation. But they have a lot of very talented players - Johnny Wilkinson, Matthew Tait and Carl Hayman to name but three - and I am certain they will present a very tough challenge.
Newcastle may have only pride to play for but that does not mean they are going to roll over. They will want to end the season on a high in front of their home crowd. They have nothing to lose and will therefore throw the ball about, which makes them a very dangerous opponent.
Kingston Park has been a tough place for us to go in the past and last year we lost to a Newcastle kick in the last minute. So we are taking nothing for granted.
Many people may have written Newcastle off, but that is the last thing we are doing.
After our difficult run of three games in eight days, we targeted 14 points from our last three league matches.
We picked up five with our win at Bristol last week and we want to make that 10 with another bonus-point victory at Kingston Park.
As coaches we have looked at how the other results will go and whether they will favour us - that's all part of our job. But there are so many permutations that it's impossible to predict.
We might still be able to qualify for the play-offs if we lose this weekend, but we are refusing to entertain that idea. Only a win will do for us on Sunday.
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I have had a chat with Martin Johnson since he was appointed England's new team manager and already he has started his search for a new attacking coach.
He is also busy looking at players for England's trip to New Zealand next month.
I must say that the attacks on Jonno for not taking up his post full-time until after the New Zealand tour are ludicrous.
Jonno always said that he would be remaining at home to support his wife through her pregnancy. Had the RFU insisted he start right away then Jonno would not have accepted the job. His wife and family come first.
And it's not like he'll be doing nothing between now and July 1, when he officially takes over. He has been assessing the set-up, looking for a new attacking coach and looking at players.
Jonno realises the measure of the task he has taken on and I have no doubt he has the leadership qualities required to make a success of the job.
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