Richard Cockerill, Leicester's director of rugby, has renewed calls for the Premiership salary cap to be raised from £4.23m, arguing that an exodus of overseas talent will weaken English rugby at all levels and make it almost impossible to compete with the leading French clubs in the Heineken Cup.

Cockerill, whose players are preparing for a must-win Pool Five game at home against Perpignan this weekend, fears the quality of the Premiership will decline if more leading players are wooed to the Top 14 by the higher wages on offer in France. "If you want to be good and have a really good product in the Aviva Premiership you have to have the finances to buy the squad," said Cockerill. "I don't want a higher salary cap to buy rock stars, I want it so we can look after the blokes we've got.

"You don't want a situation where the Premiership is a poor spectacle when the Test windows come around because all your best players are away. The club game has to be strong. If it is, the England team will be strong, as was the case in 2003."

Leicester are already facing a battle to retain high-profile players such as the Italy prop Martin Castrogiovanni and Cockerill, who turns 40 on Thursday, is pessimistic about luring top-class southern hemisphere talent to Welford Road after next year's World Cup.

"I think it will be difficult because the numbers being quoted in France are considerably more than here. The Australian and New Zealand dollars are also stronger compared with the pound so maybe Premiership contracts aren't as attractive as they once were. They're only more likely to come to Leicester if they can't cope with a different language or if they just like colder weather."

Following their defeat in Perpignan last Saturday, the Tigers are set to shuffle their front-row resources by recalling the 37-year-old Julian White to their matchday squad for Sunday's return fixture.