Leicester chief Peter Wheeler is resigned to hearing the majority of the 82,000 Twickenham crowd cheering for London Irish in Saturday's Guinness Premiership final.

Each of the finalists received an allocations of 7,000 tickets for being the best two teams in England which means the majority of the crowd will be neutral and more likely to take the side of the Irish underdogs.

Given that Leicester are traditionally disliked by their rivals, it all adds up to a testing afternoon for Wheeler's men as they chase the first part of a league and Heineken Cup double triumph over the next two weekends.

There is plenty for the rest of the English game to be envious about, with Leicester in their fifth successive Premiership final - they only won the 2007 title - and aiming for a Heineken Cup triumph to stand alongside their successes in 2001 and 2002 .

Add to the equation more than 13,000 season tickets holders and a £16million ground improvement spent to give Welford Road a capacity of 23,500 and you can see why the Tigers are unpopular.

"It comes with the territory," said the Leicester chief executive. "I don't believe many people like us and that happens when a club win trophies.

"I don't know if you call it envy and you could hardly say we are dominant, even this season we needed to win important games in the last seconds just to get where we are this Saturday and for the Heineken Cup final.

"In early January we were seventh and not looking as if we were going to make any impact but getting players back from injury and refocusing our play under a new regime has enabled us to get into these two finals.

"I am sure the neutrals will support Irish, who are seen as the underdogs although not by us."

Leicester's attempt to land a double has stretched even their large squad, with England outside-half Toby Flood ruled out with a ruptured Achilles tendon, and it has asked questions of Richard Cockerill, who only took over as director of rugby when Heyneke Meyer returned to South Africa for family reasons in mid-season.

Yet Cockerill has done so well he collected the Premiership director of rugby award for 2008-09 and Wheeler added: "Richard was the obvious option to take over when Heyneke had to go.

"I have seen him mature without losing the passion that was always part of his playing days. We haven't won anything this season and there is no point getting to finals and not coming away with the trophy. The players know what is needed on Saturday."

Wheeler is loathe to describe Leicester as the strongest financial outfit in England. However, the huge season ticket sales helped fund the ground redevelopment which means the Tigers will not have to take big matches to the city's football club stadium in future.

"Some rugby clubs are owned by individuals who have deep pockets compared to us," added Wheeler.

"We have worked really hard to build up support and improve the ground and people keep coming back. A lot of clubs are not that far behind us."

Leicester flanker Tom Croft's hectic season is about to get even more demanding following the 12-week ban handed to Munster's Alan Quinlan which rules him out of the Lions tour to South Africa.

A week after the Premiership final, Croft will line up in the Heineken Cup Final against Leinster, the day before the Lions tour leaves.

Croft was the last name ruled out by the Lions management, who could now bring him into the squad. Croft deserves to tour and his only rival for the job is Ryan Jones, the Wales captain, who has been out of form.