What does Air Jordan, a comic book anti-hero, and a set of legendary departing Leicester Tigers players have in common?
They have all starred in a blockbuster ‘last dance’.
It was the theme of basketball legend Michael Jordan’s final glorious season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98, and title of the docuseries, external that chronicled his career.
The final film in the Venom trilogy, external, starring Tom Hardy, got the same treatment when it was put up in Hollywood lights last year.
Now Leicester are on English club rugby’s biggest stage at Twickenham on Saturday to try to give a triumphant send-off to a cast of Tigers icons.
It has gone unsaid among players, but it has been acknowledged as “the last dance”.
Ben Youngs, a five-time Premiership winner with Tigers, and Dan Cole, who has four league crowns on his own CV, will both retire at full-time.
They go out together as the two most capped men in English international history.
Their long-time England team-mate Mike Brown – a two-time Premiership winner with Harlequins who has been at Tigers since early 2023 – will also bow out at the same time.
Captain Julian Montoya will also leave the East Midlands side, as will two-time World Cup-winning South African fly-half Handre Pollard and decorated head coach Michael Cheika.
While Leicester’s Australian boss has played down the significance of what will be the final 80 minutes for some of the club’s finest servants, the players themselves have felt the impact.
England scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet, who has been Youngs’ successor for club and country, says it has “100% been an element” that has spurred them on.
“It’s not been something that we have really said out loud much, we don’t say it before games, but we all know,” he told BBC Radio Leicester.
“We look at each other and go ‘right, it’s their last dance’.
“You have got legends there, two especially, that you properly want to do it for because they deserve it for what they have given to the club and the fans.
“They deserve a proper send-off with a win and a trophy. It is something that has gone unsaid, but I definitely feel part of it and I’m sure a lot of the boys do as well.”
