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The Leicester Tigers are looking to secure a third successive Premiership crown this season, and head coach Matt O'Connor has siad it will be done with one of their youngest squads ever.

O'Connor recently signed a long-term deal to stay with the double-defending Champions, and was elevated to the position of head coach after Richard Cockerill was given the Dirctor of Rugby title.

He hailed the club's club's youngsters ahead of this year's campaign, and expects them to make a significant impact for this season's title tilt.

"The group we have at the moment is a pretty young one and I would argue that Tigers have never had as young a squad," he said.

"That puts us in a very good place for the new season. They are athletic and robust in a sense of what you can get out of them and that is pleasing.

"With that youth comes resilience and a robustness in the training environment, which is what they need to develop their game.

"The internationals have only just started coming back from their respective breaks. But we can still do a lot of constructive work because we are trying to develop that second tier of players who will get more game time when the internationals are away in autumn and at the Six Nations.

"The work we do with them in pre-season while the internationals are away is vital and puts you in as good place come the international windows.

"The disappointing thing for some of those young guys when they are not in the match-day 23 is that they are not getting the exposure to the first-team coaches and the training time they would like to so these are valuable times for these players.

"At the same time, most of the senior blokes we have got back are physically and mentally refreshed and are hungry for more success which is great."