"The Premiership will be very quick to forget that you’re a Lion" - Ollie Chessum eager to impress in return to club rugby

Now, after injury halted his autumn run, he’s easing his way back into club colours at Leicester Tigers. The challenge ahead will be re-establishing himself in a league he believes has no interest in living on past glories.

“It’s something you can say you’ve been and done,” he said of his summer with the Lions. “But as far as rugby goes, the proof’s in the pudding, really — you’ve got to go out there and deliver regardless of what you’ve done before. I think the Premiership will be very quick to forget that you’re a Lion. And same with an autumn nations, or Six Nations, I don’t think that reputation lasts very long.”

At 25 and now newly appointed Leicester Tigers club captain for the 2025–26 season, he’s old enough to understand how professional rugby works but young enough to still feel the hunger of proving himself all over again.

His return this week comes at a hectic moment for Leicester: Newcastle Red Bulls await at Kingston Park tomorrow night, before a daunting Champions Cup trip to La Rochelle and then Leinster at home — a side stacked with several of the Irish teammates Chessum bonded with on tour. He won’t feature against Newcastle as he manages his recovery, but the European fixtures remain a possibility.

That Lions tour left him with more than memories. It expanded his rugby worldview.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat, I suppose,” he said. “You can become very tunnel-visioned if working with the same coaches day in, day out at your club. And for me, I’ve worked with Steve [Borthwick] at club level and international level for the entire of my career… it was nice to see the other avenues that coaches like to take you down. It was a valuable experience for me, not just as a player, but as a person as well.”

Part of that learning came from watching Maro Itoje lead the squad.

“I’ve worked closely with Maro for a long time,” Chessum said. “He took the role very well… over the last couple of years, he’s become fairly comfortable in those leadership roles. So he did really well.”

The personal side of the tour seems to have left an even deeper mark. Chessum admits he arrived knowing few of the Irish contingent — and left with friendships that will complicate the emotional calculus of future rivalries.

“I’ve not come across a lot of the Irish boys before, and I got on very well with them. Obviously, Hugo Keenan is here today, so it’s nice to catch up with him. But everyone, really… I got to meet everyone.

“It’ll be strange in the next few weeks coming up against them again. And then, obviously, with international stuff, it changes the picture for you slightly. It was quite easy to motivate yourself to play games against these guys in terms of creating a narrative around what they are like as people, whereas now I’ve met them face to face, I know that’s not always the case. So I’ll have to find a different way.”