European Cup Ulster v Leicester: How the mighty are falling. Four-time English champions and two-time European champions as recently as the season before last, the undeniable impression is that an era has ended. The Leicester Tigers have lost their bite, and their claws.

Leicester are so far off the pace in the English Premiership that they are 12 points adrift of seventh-placed Sale, never mind 32 points away from leaders Bath. It may only be the second week in January, but already their only hope of salvaging their season and qualifying for the Heineken European Cup for the eighth time out of eight is by winning the competition outright again.

Theoretically, of course, this could make the wounded Tigers a more dangerous animal against Ulster tomorrow at Ravenhill, but nothing about their recent form suggests they are.

In recent times, Leicester have been beaten at home by 14-man Bath, kept scoreless by Northampton, and beaten by a star-studded but cobbled-together Stade Français in the European Cup.

Welford Road, once a fortress, is now a sandcastle. For almost five years from December 1997 until Northampton beat them in November 2002, Leicester were unbeaten in the Premiership at home. The loss to Gloucester last weekend was their fourth home defeat of the season.

Most of all, what some saw as arrogance, and what at the very least was an innate self-confidence, has gone. Geordan Murphy, back doing light training with the backs at Welford Road and targeting a February 21st meeting with London Irish as his comeback, is taken aback by it.

"We're just in a rut and confidence is low," he admits. "All the heads are a little down, there's less smiling and joking, and team morale seems low. There's probably a little post-World Cup fatigue and if anything those guys are trying too hard now."

Indeed, not even the return of their seven World Cup heroes has prevented Leicester's ignominious slide down the Premiership table, but even amid the good days over the last few years, much of the spark for Leicester's back play came from Austin Healey and Murphy.

Take them out of the equation, as happened for a spell last season, and they are increasingly reliant on forward power, but not even their famed lineout maul looked capable of rumbling over Gloucester's line last week.

Save for a 21st-minute try when Ollie Smith straightened through a gaping hole in the Gloucester midfield, and one break by the outhalf to set up Neil Baxter, they lacked penetration and ideas.

Gloucester, with Duncan McRae and Henry Paul in creative tandem, the impressive newcomer Jon Goodridge hitting the line and the pacy James Simpson-Daniel and Marcel Garvey out wide, had far more cutting edge.

Had they not been in awe of the Welford Road factor, Gloucester would have won pulling away rather than inviting Leicester back into the game. But the 28-18 win courtesy of Duncan McRae's try scarcely told the tale.

The reasons for Leicester's relative decline are complex. Firstly, these things are cyclical, and all dominant eras must come to an end. Undoubtedly too, the strain on their frontliners was at its most severe in World Cup year, when they had seven of England's World Cup squad.

There was something uncannily apt about Martin Johnson wearily and grouchily parading the Webb Ellis Trophy around Welford Road after last Saturday's defeat to Gloucester, not to mention Lewis Moody manfully attempting to do so on crutches.

Although Clive Woodward supposedly had a "fully fit" squad of 30 to pick from for the World Cup final, unsurprisingly they have been falling like nine-pins since being hurried back with indecent haste into the club game.

By last Saturday, Richards could only play Johnson, Ben Kay and Neil Back. The latter, in his role as captain, spent most of the afternoon bickering with the referee, but Johnson couldn't even manage that.

He was hauled off at half-time, despite being able to reappear as a temporary replacement midway through the second period. Richards gave the official line afterwards that England's awesome skipper was suffering from a back strain.

Unofficially, the word is he is simply bunched. He looks it too, and no wonder. The strain he has been under for much of the past few years, and especially the preceding six months culminating in the World Cup final, can scarcely be imagined. Even Johnson is human.

When a feeling of impregnability is eroded from champions, not only does their own confidence wane, but opponents lose their fear, and such was Leicester's perceived arrogance there'll be little sympathy. Virtually everyone bar winless Rotherham believes Leicester are beatable, and with good reason.

That the gap between Leicester and the rest in England has been bridged can also be partially attributed to the salary cap imposed on the English clubs.

Set at £1.8 million, this can rise to £2.1-2.3 million for the leading clubs depending on allowances for players either away on international duty or injured for eight weeks or more.

As Warren Gatland, head coach at Wasps, says, this was put in place to "save the rest of the clubs from themselves". He concedes "it probably penalises Leicester and Northampton", the two most financially viable clubs and the only ones to make a profit last season. It's also worth speculating whether it would hold up in court if legally challenged.

It has certainly levelled the playing field in England and clipped Leicester's customary spending power over the rest. Nevertheless, they can still sweeten player salaries with private sponsorships, such as Johnson's by the Hong Kong Bank.

Nor does it stop them from strengthening their squad, and in the last couple of years some of their acquisitions have been eyebrow-raisingly uninspired.

In the summer, they signed two international props in the injury-prone Julian White and the underwhelming Darren Morris, ex-All Black centre Daryl Gibson and the unproven Italian outhalf Ramiro Pez from newly-promoted Rotherham.

Meanwhile, bizarrely, they let Josh Kronfeld go.

No less than the departed Rod Kafer and the injured Murphy, losing Gibson as well recently was typical of Leicester's misfortune, but such has been Pez's impact that Andy Goode has been brought back from Saracens, with limited success.

"It's been a problem position for them for years, ever since Joel Stransky," observes the London Irish flanker Kieron Dawson.

In his eight years across channel, Dawson reckons he's played Leicester 16 or 17 times, and is in no doubt that "the old Leicester aura has gone".

"We went up to Welford Road and beat them last season when we were fighting against relegation and I don't think London Irish had ever won up there before, certainly not in my time.

"We played them there again in our first match this season, but we were very rusty. We lost very narrowly but we should have won. They've lost that edge."

Their most recurring problem, according to Dawson, has been at halfback. "They've tried a lot of players there, especially at outhalf since Stransky left. They've recently tried Ramiro Pez but have now gone back to Andy Goode, who I don't think is registered for the Heineken Cup.

"Healey at halfback can be a bit erratic, so although they've always had a good back row and a good tight five, that nine-10 axis has been a bit flaky for them."

The bottom line is that Wasps, Northampton and Bath have all bought better and have superior squads, most noticeably at halfback actually, and are all coached by proven overseas coaches still in the early years of their tenure.

Richards, taciturn even by his standards in the wake of the Gloucester defeat, seemed to break ranks with his dressing-room by questioning his players' passion, and - without naming Goode - bemoaned the excessive use of the boot.

But, aside from looking underpowered and short of confidence, Leicester also looked stale. Devoid of attacking wit, as Goode kicked for position and missed four drop-goal attempts, more than anything they look like a club in need of fresh direction.

It would be a painful and untypical process, but Leicester might soon be tempted to follow Bath's example of painfully breaking with in-house tradition and dismantling an ageing squad.

Dawson is quick to cite the comparison with Bath. "It's perhaps the same as what happened at Bath, when they relied on the old guard for too long and they too started to struggle big-time."

Whether Leicester will break with their "boot-room" tradition is one of the conundrums liable to be facing chief executive Peter Wheeler and the club's directors soon if the decline continues.

Richards heads up a coaching ticket composed entirely of former Welford Road stalwarts, namely John Wells, Andy Keys and John Duggan, and is one of the Tigers' most celebrated servants, having seamlessly switched from number eight to head coach/manager.

He guided Leicester to unprecedented back-to-back European Cups, as well as a fourth Premiership title in a row, but even he might become a victim of that success after a second successive season of under-achievement.

Effectively losing all interest in the Premiership title by the turn of the year after just five wins in 14 matches is one thing, failing to qualify for the European Cup for the first time is quite another.

John Mitchell had scarcely been beheaded by the New Zealand Union in December when his name was being linked with English and French clubs.

Mitchell, of course, had already coached at Sale as well as assisting Clive Woodward at England. That he could be a prospective coach of Leicester was given credence by comments from Wheeler last month. Echoing the pressures on soccer managers Gerard Houllier and Bobby Robson at Liverpool and Newcastle, failure to qualify for the European Cup next season "would be a massive setback", said the Leicester chief executive.

"If we fail to qualify for the Heineken Cup, we will need to undertake a widespread review of what went wrong," he added.

And that was before they lost last weekend to Gloucester, following which Richards conceded that the only way Leicester could qualify for the European Cup next season via the Premiership would be to win their remaining eight games - and even then they might require favours elsewhere.

Dawson, for one, disputes Nick Mallett's assertion that Leicester have more pack power than Ulster, and is confident his native province can win at Ravenhill.

Maybe Leicester will defy father time and the formbook. Maybe they have one more European Cup in them. If so, it'll be their greatest achievement yet.

Highs and lows

European Cup: Champions 2000/1 and 2001/2. Last season: beaten in quarter-final at Welford Road by Munster.

English Premiership: Champions 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. Current standing: 9th (32 points behind league leaders Bath).