Ferguson reveals how Wood has been firing Saints up for Tigers clash

Wood, who scored the winning try in the incredible 2013/14 Gallagher Premiership play-off semi-final win against Tigers, has been beating the drum ahead of the big league clash at Welford Road.

Ferguson explained: "I'd been in work for about 10 minutes on Monday and we had Woody addressing the squad saying some of his best rugby memories have been in these games.

"When you hear someone like that talking about it, it gives you the hairs standing up on the back of your neck.

"It was in a team meeting with no pre-empting. It was just his thought process.

"We then talked about the emotional control having to build through the week.

"We've benefited from a Friday night game and it gave us the chance to have a weekend off so we came in Monday pretty fresh.

"Emotional control between then and Saturday is crucial - you don't want to play the game too early - but we don't need to or want to play down the significance of an East Midlands derby.

"The sessions we've had told me we're on the right track."

And Ferguson added: "You can try and hide it any way you want, but ultimately it's a derby and it means something.

"Even in my three years here, I was driving in on Monday morning and thinking some of my best memories at Saints already have been around those games really.

"My first Saints derby game was the Rob Horne match at Twickenham - a great occasion but we didn't come out on the right side of the result - and then when we went to Leicester at the end of that season and absolutely pumped them.

"Then there was the game last September, which was one of our worst performances in our time at Saints.

"It's a derby, it's a crucial game for play-off ambitions, it's the run-in and you keep going back to one thing: it's the East Midlands derby, it's Saints v Leicester and there are lots of reasons why this game has been tasty in the past."