Leicester will this week reward their acting head coach Richard Cockerill for the double achievement of getting them to the top of the Guinness Premiership and into the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup by giving him the job full time.
Cockerill's players were told the news after Saturday's last-minute, quarter-final victory over Bath when the club chairman Peter Tom visited the home dressing room at the Walkers Stadium. Cockerill will be Leicester's sixth head coach in five years.
The 38-year-old has twice held the fort while Leicester search the world for the man they want. In 2007 he kept the seat warm for Marcelo Loffreda, winning four from six league matches while the Argentinian was at the World Cup. This time he took charge when Heyneke Meyer resigned and returned to South Africa for family reasons and Leicester have not only won seven of their last eight games but are playing attractive rugby as well.
Former Australia coach Eddie Jones, who recently quit Saracens, Cardiff's Dai Young and South Africa's World-Cup-winning manager Jake White had all been heavily linked with the post.
However, the Tigers board believes it is the right time to promote from within, and having played over 200 games at hooker for Leicester before moving into the dugout, Cockerill is also the overwhelming choice of the fans.
Just last week, Tom hinted that he was ready to offer Cockerill the job on a permanent basis, admitting: "Richard is certainly making it difficult for us." Cockerill replied by insisting he was up for the challenge whenever Tom came knocking. "I'm ready for the job if the board want to go down that route. If not, then I'd hope to be allowed to carry on as forwards coach.
"I'm not ego-driven in that regard. This has all come about through circumstance rather than through ambition. I've fallen into these roles. But I've seen how others operate and I know I've got the ability to do the job," the former England forward said at the time.
The European champions of 2001 and 2002 travel to the Millennium Stadium on 3 May to play Cardiff Blues in their semi-final after pipping Bath 20-15 on Saturday. The other semi-final, between Leinster and the holders Munster, will be the previous day at Croke Park, Dublin and could break the world record attendance for a club game.
Last year at Twickenham 81,600 paid to watch the Premiership final between Wasps and Leicester, but Croke can hold 900 more and yesterday, after putting the first tickets on sale, the ERC said a full house was likely. The 5,000 tickets put on the ERC's website went in 30 minutes.
Each team is allocated 30,000 seats, but there is already controversy in Limerick where Munster fans are unhappy that they can only buy one ticket per season ticket holder, whereas Leinster supporters are allowed eight per family.
There is also some controversy over Leinster's Australian back-row forward, Rocky Elsom, man of the match on Sunday when Leinster squeezed passed Harlequins at the Stoop.
According to the Australian Rugby Union, Elsom is due to return to Australia and play for the Wallabies at the end of the season. TheARU says it released the 26-year-old for a sabbatical year on "compassionate grounds" after a business venture had failed, but because of an oversight the former Waratah failed to sign his contract. Now after a lucrative year in Dublin, Elsom is thinking twice about heading home and has even signed a deal, worth about £10,000, to play for the Barbarians against the Wallabies in June.
A second season playing for Leinster is on the cards along with several offers from other clubs. "We've got a pretty good roster over here and I'm enjoying myself," said Elsom. "I've been playing all right here, and the club probably doesn't have all the forwards they'd like. So staying is definitely an option."
