Howard aiming for double

The Tigers defeated Sale on Saturday to book a place in the Anglo-Welsh Twickenham final against the Ospreys on April 15.

Now the former Wallabies centre wants to secure a second visit to the spiritual home of rugby by reaching the final of the European Cup, also to be staged at Twickenham.

Leicester meet Stade Francais in the quarter-finals on Sunday and Howard admits there are a number of sides good enough to win the trophy.

"Europe is a whole different ball game, you have got a lot of very good teams all of whom could win it," said Howard.

"The four teams in our part of the pool are extremely good teams – Munster, Llanelli, ourselves and Stade, any of those four could be the one in the final and we know only a top class performance will do."

Stade will be missing a number of key forwards for the Welford Road clash but Howard thinks the French side's strength in depth will allow them to cover for this.

"We have got a few injuries ourselves which always happens at this time of year and we know they will be a tough side because they have amazing depth," he added.

"This is where the salary cap makes a difference because they have talent all the way through.

"We know it will be a fantastic match for the spectator - I just hope it will also be a fantastic match for Leicester."

Leicester will be aiming for their third European Cup title after back-to-back triumphs in 2001 and 2002 under former captain Martin Johnson.

Howard played in the 2001 final victory, which came against Sunday's opponents Stade.