Pressure on Leeds to snatch lifeline – Thompson

The 32-year-old has a World Cup medal on his mantlepiece but readily acknowledges that the outcome of Saturday’s game is about more than personal accolades.

Relegation to the Championship could financially hamstring Leeds who froze £1.5m worth of debt at the start of the season chasing Heineken Cup qualification.

The reality has been a lot harsher with Leeds struggling at the foot of the table for the entire campaign.

But after picking up two wins in their last four games to close from 11 points adrift of Newcastle to just two, the Yorkshire club have moved themselves to within touching distance of survival.

Victory at Kingston Park on Saturday would go a long way to ensuring another season of Premiership rugby and a secure future for all at the club, while defeat would be unthinkable with relegation then all-but certain; hence the pressure Thompson is feeling. “It’s a completely different side of the spectrum,” he said in reference to the build-up to the 2003 World Cup final in Australia.

“We’re playing in a game on Saturday that could decide whether people lose their jobs and livelihoods, but that’s the professional game and that’s the way we’ve got to look at it.

“For us, going and winning World Cups and England games is all nice, it’s good to put your name to, but then on the other hand, when it comes to people losing their jobs we’ve got to make sure we go out there and fight.

“There’s pressure on our shoulders but that’s sport, the ups and downs of it. For me we’ve got to go out there and make sure we enjoy it.

“If you’re enjoying it you’re probably winning and that’s what we’ve got to do on Saturday.”

What will suit Leeds is that Thompson is one of a number of players playing for their future.

The former Brive and Northampton front row is contracted until the end of next season but having established himself in the England reckoning in a World Cup year, he will not want to leave to chance his hopes of playing in New Zealand in September and October by plying his trade with a Championship club.

He said: “I came here to be with Leeds in the Premiership, I don’t want to be part of a squad that goes down, so we’ve got to make sure we fight and keep Leeds in the Premiership.

“I haven’t even thought about next season. We’ve got to make sure we go to Newcastle and get a win and I will see what happens at the end of the season.

“For me right now it’s all about playing for Leeds and playing the best I can. That’s what we all joined for and what we’re all going to be fighting for.”

Thompson has lived up to the billing of one of Leeds’s more high proilfe players with some impressive performances.

In the win over Exeter last Sunday he played for the entire 80 minutes – a rarity for front row forwards – despite carrying a foot injury, and after spending yesterday afternoon training children at an Easter camp at West Park Bramhope, he was still buzzing from that vital win.

“What made it even better is how we went ahead and despite letting it slip, we got the lead back again,” he said.

“Everyone pulled together, even after losing Marco Wentzel just after half-time. Everyone dug in and showed how willing they are to get the job done.

“The timing of the victory was important, we knew it would bring us within two points of Newcastle, so if we’d have lost that and chucked it away, psychologically that would have been a big blow for us.”

Thompson was an observer when Leeds and Newcastle met in the first of their much-hyped dogfights six weeks ago, when the Headingley men froze and allowed the Falcons to fly home with an easy four points.

Thompson had been on England duty the day before and said: “Either the boys got caught a little bit cold or they were a tiny bit complacent, but unfortunately they just didn’t get going.

“But that’s in the past, since that game we’ve turned a bit of a corner, we’ve got to make sure we go out there and get the win.

“As much as people tell you to ignore the build-up, you can’t, because it is a final, whoever loses is going to be bottom. We’ve got to make sure it isn’t Leeds.”

As for his own preparations, Thompson is seasoned enough not to rock any apple carts ahead of such a pivotal game.

“My routine will be no different, as soon as you start changing the routine that’s when you take yourself out of where you should be,” he said.

“As long as I do all my preparation right, know all the scrum calls the lineout calls, that’s as much as I can do. Some people can actually wind themselves up so much that when it actually comes to the game they’re exhausted. I’ve managed to learn that a little down time will always help.”