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Andy Goode: 'Those at the very top at Welford Road got it wrong for a while with the route they went down'
It is 20 years ago this week since Leicester lifted their first European Cup and this weekend’s Challenge Cup final might just be the first significant step on their way back to the top.
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There’s no sugar coating it, win or lose, it isn’t the same at all as the Parc des Princes in 2001 but we’ve seen the likes of Sale and Harlequins win Europe’s second tier trophy in the past and use it as a springboard for further success.
It has been a barren few years for Tigers since they last made it to the Premiership play-offs in 2017, and the decline had begun before that with their long streak of domestic final appearances ended in 2014, but Steve Borthwick has them well on the road to recovery.
In truth, Geordan Murphy still deserves a lot of the credit for the resurgence Leicester are enjoying now because he picked up the pieces after the club had chopped and changed between Richard Cockerill, Aaron Mauger and Matt O’Connor in a short space of time.
He nurtured the likes of Freddie Steward, Joe Heyes, Tommy Reffell, Jack van Poortvliet and others and brought them through into the first team. Together with a handful of new foreign imports, most of whom Geordan also signed, they are now starting to have a big impact.
That academy production line is definitely something that was overlooked for a period and now it is bearing fruit after there was greater investment in it and focus on its importance under Murphy.
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George Ford, the Youngs brothers and Dan Cole and a few others all came up through the ranks a long time ago but there was a dearth of top-quality players coming out of the academy and into the first team for quite a while after them.
The youth setups weren’t really the same back in 2001 but a lot of that year’s Heineken Cup winning side were local or fully ingrained into the club. In this crop, Calum Green has returned after a few years away, Harry Wells has stepped up and then there are the likes of Tom Youngs, who bleeds green.
Rugby isn’t like football where if you’re a top club like a Manchester City, you probably can buy in all of your talent and maybe just have one or two youth team players break through every decade. You need those players who have been nurtured through and want to do everything they can for the club.
Those at the very top at Welford Road got it wrong for a while with the route they went down, all the hiring and firing created uncertainty for players and their recruitment policy just wasn’t up to scratch.
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For too long short-termism prevailed and there was a distinct lack of succession planning but hopefully that era has come to an end now and it does look like a corner is being turned.
It isn’t the elite European competition but lifting a trophy at Twickenham would lay down a marker that the club has begun the journey back to the heights of Paris in 2001.
In terms of the game itself, there might be parallels between this one and that final at the Parc des Princes a couple of decades ago because I think it’s going to be a real battle in the forwards.
Borthwick is trying to claim that Leicester are “massive underdogs” but I don’t think they are at all. I can’t see it being a particularly free-flowing game of rugby but Tigers might be able to come up with a moment of quality or two to win it, as we did all those years ago.
I’m looking forward to seeing how my old protégé Alex Lozowski goes at fly-half up against Ford and the selections of Richard Wigglesworth and Benoit Paillaugue ahead of Ben Youngs and Cobus Reinach tell a story as well.
There won’t be a lot of rugby played in their own half by either team, it’ll be a monstrous physical confrontation in the forwards and the territory battle and kicking game will be to the fore.
It’s too simplistic to say that Borthwick has brought back that old school Leicester DNA but he certainly has got the forward pack playing a similar type of hard-nosed rugby to the one that made the club so successful.
It isn’t about razzle-dazzle and fun and style under Borthwick but the identity he’s brought revolves around hard work and grit and that has got them to a Challenge Cup final.
Whether that can take Leicester back to the top and into Premiership and Champions Cup finals again remains to be seen but they’ve only won one Anglo-Welsh Cup in the past eight years since they last lifted the Premiership title in 2013 and this could certainly prove to be a springboard for them.
Comments on RugbyPass
Thanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
81 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
3 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
3 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
3 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
13 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to comments