Joe Heyes: Leicester Tigers prop on how butchery course helped ‘connectivity’

But how can carving meat make a rugby team any better at carving up opposition defences?

“It’s just that connectivity that you don’t massively get when you come into the club and you go home. Lads are connecting well off the pitch so you’re getting to know each other a lot better,” he said.

“Then when we are together we’re training really hard, we’re really going at each other on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and it’s good – it’s positive competition and we’re all friends off it.”

The rewards for that unity is securing a play-off place with two games remaining, which gives them a chance of now trying to go on to secure a home semi-final.

They next host fourth-placed Exeter on 31 May before finishing the regular season at champions Bath, currently a point ahead of Tigers in second place.

The by-products of last week’s hard work, it turns out, are as filling as they were fulfilling.

“I’ve got eight legs in the freezer now – it’s a big chest freezer full of legs,” Heyes said.

“There’s a couple of lads who’ve got the background of farming and all those kind of things, but for me it was a very new experience. It was cool, I’ve got a bit of a weak stomach, but it was different – very different.”

Listen to Heyes’ full interview on the Tigers Rugby Show on BBC Radio Leicester on Wednesday and again on BBC Sounds.