Richard Wigglesworth starts a season which ends with his 40th birthday vowing to improve both as a player and coach.
Premiership Rugby’s all-time appearance leader played a starring role as Leicester won last season’s Grand Final against Saracens.
Three months on the Peter Pan of the English game is in line for his 319th league outing as Steve Borthwick’s Tigers open their title defence today at Exeter.
With England stars Ben Youngs and Jack van Poortvliet also vying for scrum-half selection, Wigglesworth has his work cut out to extend his 20-year playing career.
But the Blackpool-born player-coach has spent his rugby life driving standards and says he is not about to stop now.
"The way Steve operates there is no place for you at Leicester Tigers if you don’t want to try and get better every day," said Wigglesworth.
“I haven’t seen any change since winning the final. We all know what is expected. We’re on red alert. We’ve turned up again and got stuck in.”
Leicester dominated last season, making history as the first club ever to lead the league after every round.
They won their first 15 matches in the Premiership and Europe, roamed unbeaten until mid January and went on to beat Saracens at Twickenham.
Following that is going to take some effort, given they have lost leaders Ellis Genge and George Ford and start the campaign with their five current England stars unavailable.
They have recruited well but of their three headline signings only Jimmy Gopperth plays at Sandy Park. Handre Pollard and Anthony Watson are carrying injuries.
The passing of the Queen caused the opening night of the Premiership to be postponed and means Leicester take centre stage today.
It is no less than they deserve but Wigglesworth know they must quickly move on from their title win or fall behind.
“You have a choice,” he said. “You can either look back and think ‘that was great’ or go ‘how much work did that take, how tough was that?’ then raise the bar again."
Wigglesworth has done that consistently throughout a career that has brought seven Premiership titles and 33 caps.
“People give me the Peter Pan tag and I like to think that is a compliment,” he said. “I’ve played until I’m nearly 40 and still have as much ambition and enthusiasm as ever.
“I can’t say the last final didn’t mean a lot to me, playing against my old Saracens team mates, a club that hadn’t lost a final since 2014.
“But it’s amazing how quickly you move on. That is English rugby. Five weeks later and here we are back to trying to get better.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way to be honest. I guess it’s the way I’m wired. If somebody tells me something is difficult I tend to run towards it.”
