Leicester Tigers club captain Hanro Liebenberg says the squad’s desire to “never back down” from a challenge has helped put them in a position to defend their Premiership title.

They take on Sale in their semi-final on Sunday at the AJ Bell Stadium.

“We have the chance to do something special,” Liebenberg said.

Tigers clinched third spot in the Premiership table after winning six of their last eight games of the regular season.

Those victories were achieved back-to-back, with Saracens, London Irish, Bath, Gloucester, Bristol and Exeter all beaten in a run stretching back to February.

Before embarking on that burst Tigers had won just once in five league games and had seen Borthwick headhunted by England, taking defence coach Kevin Sinfield with him.

“The season has brought so many changes and disruption and we said ‘listen, if we all buy into this we can make a semi-final spot and anything can happen’,” added Liebenberg.

“We put ourselves in contention now and it’s all in our hands. It’s a massive challenge but one we’re looking forward to.”

Coaches ‘thrown in deep end and came out swimming’

The mid-season departure of Borthwick was a crossroads in Tigers’ season and Liebenberg says the squad could have “easily felt sorry for ourselves”, but decided to use it as a motivation to kick on under the new coaching team under former player Richard Wigglesworth.

“We never back down from any challenge,” he said.

“We did go through a bad spell midway through the season but we picked it back up with six games on bounce – not easy games too.

“I take my hat off to the whole coaching staff. Obviously, with Steve and Kev leaving.

“They’ve not taken a backwards step once and they’ve prepared us extremely well.

“They got thrown in at the deep end and they came out swimming. Hopefully we can deliver again this weekend.”

Liebenberg ‘fine’ with ‘tough’ captaincy call

It is not just the change in head coach that Liebenberg has had to deal with this season.

At the end of March, Wigglesworth made the decision to split the Tigers’ captaincy, bringing in a ‘matchday’ skipper – with Julian Montoya given the role.

Liebenberg, who remains club captain having taken over from Ellis Genge when he rejoined Bristol at the start of the season, said it was a decision he supported.

“Me and Wiggy had a chat and I felt like I wasn’t playing as well as I was previously when I wasn’t captain,” he said.

“Being captain adds a bit of extra pressure – I put some extra pressure on myself and wasn’t performing the way I’d like to, and Wiggy said ‘let’s take some pressure off’.

“I was fine with it and respect every decision Wiggy makes, and Julian has been an absolutely brilliant captain and I’ve learnt so much from him.”

Liebenberg said it was still a “tough” time for him but says he “had to move on”, adding: “I’ve played with more freedom and that pressure I put on myself has been lifted.”