WELCOME FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Peter Tom CBE CHAIRMAN

Opening words from the Chairman of the Leicester Tigers.

A very warm welcome from the Leicester Tigers, wherever you are following the match this afternoon.

This is our first home game since the thrilling win over Ulster in the European Challenge Cup semi-final and, significantly, it is also the last one before supporters are scheduled to be welcomed back into the stadium.

The game against Bristol Bears here on Saturday, June 5 will be our first in front of a crowd - even in reduced numbers - since February last year and, if you joined the ticket ballot, you should now have all the details of how you can attend.

After more than 15 months with gates closed, that is a day we are all getting excited about and I’m sure you feel the same way.

It also means that we will have another big game for supporters to attend with the European Challenge Cup Final against Montpellier next week and then that date with Bristol next month.

In the weeks to follow, Mattioli Woods Welford Road also stages an England representative fixture and the Varsity Matches between the university teams of Oxford and Cambridge, which has a huge history attached to it and will add another chapter to the stadium’s story.

As a club, we feel hugely honoured to be able to host these events and even more so in the knowledge that supporters will be allowed to share them.

It is also great to see our Academy team is back in league action after a long absence and we wish the players and coaching team well in their remaining fixtures after a hard-earned win at Bath last weekend.

Today, our focus is on an in-form Harlequins and we welcome their players and officials this afternoon for the penultimate home game of the league season.

A young Tigers team showed plenty of spirit in the game at Sale Sharks last Friday and it was good to see them fight their way back into the game though, as Steve said immediately after, it was frustrating that “damage had been done” in the opening stages against a strong home team.

We are extremely proud of our place in this great sporting city and county and, on behalf of everyone at the Tigers, today I send very best wishes to our

neighbours at Leicester City ahead of the FA Cup Final at Wembley and hope they can bring more success to Leicester and Leicestershire.

As always, thank you for your support of the Tigers. We all look forward to seeing you again in person very soon.

It is an honour to host the Varsity Matches

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