Jasper Wiese: Leicester Tigers back-row hails Leinster as ‘probably the best club team in the world’

Adam Kyriacou
Jasper Wiese

Leicester number eight Jasper Wiese has hailed Champions Cup quarter-final opponents Leinster as “probably the best club team in the world”.

The Tigers travel to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for arguably the toughest test of the last-eight fixtures, an away match against the mighty Irish team.

Indeed, the odds are stacked against Richard Wigglesworth’s outfit as Leinster are looking every bit serious contenders for the Champions Cup crown.

Praise from Wiese

Leo Cullen’s side have won five games in a row this European campaign and Springbok number eight Wiese is under no illusions of the task facing them.

“They are so clinical,” back-row Wiese said ahead of the clash.

“I would say they are probably the best club team in the world if you go on performance and how they operate.

“They are a brilliant team and we need to front-up for a big battle. It is a really good challenge for us to see where we are.

“To match yourself against the best is probably one of the better tests you will get in a club career.

“You definitely have to try and slow them down. They play quickly with very good ruck speed. They have got a world-class pack and our challenge first of all is to try and stop them there.”

Tigers‘ interim head coach Wigglesworth has beaten Leinster twice during his playing career at Saracens, but lost to the Irish side for Tigers last season.

Wigglesworth said: “They came out and were dominant early on. They kept us at arm’s length and it was a quarter-final that they had complete control over after the first 20 minutes. They did a job on us early.

“You are coaching against brilliant coaches – Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster are just running a machine. It doesn’t matter who plays for them, they always win. They have a massive squad packed full of quality.

Massively excited

“We are massively excited by it. We’ve said how big a challenge this is and we are not going to shy away from that. If you are not excited by this, you are in the wrong job.

“They are that good that you can’t really see a weakness. They are so well-coached and they have got such good players.

“We’ve got to play exactly how we want to play the game. Whether that is good enough to compete against Leinster, we will find out, but we are determined to give the absolute best of ourselves.

“We get stuck into battles and that is what we will do on Friday night.”

READ MORE: Loose Pass: Home advantage in the Champions Cup and the Premiership’s future

Champions Cup Jasper Wiese

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