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Aviva Premiership Season Preview: Leicester Tigers

Manu Tuilagi

Lee Calvert previews the biggest teams ahead of the Aviva Premiership season. First: Leicester Tigers.

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For a long time Leicester Tigers were a virtually unstoppable force in English rugby, a relentless red-and-green hooped nightmare mauling to death the hopes and dreams of those in their way. The East Midlands outfit only missed two Premiership finals between 1999 and 2013, and lifted the trophy eight times during that period. Since 2013 they have finished third, third and fourth, which in isolation looks a decent effort, but Leicester fans expect more and they will hope to claw back to their perch this season.

At their peak the Tigers pack was like a Panzer tank on speed, rolling over or blasting everything in its path and allowing gloriously chubby enigma Andy Goode to orchestrate patterned attacks from the armchair they afforded him. More recently their forwards have become more like a septic tank on wheels – pushover tries against them were not uncommon last year – meaning that the talented Freddie Burns and Owen Williams at 10 struggled.

This season coach Richard Cockerill has boosted his front and back row with Pat Cilliers, George McGuigan, Ellis Genge and Luke Hamilton, and will look to these players bolstering the already impressive international personnel up front. There is still some concern that they will remain fragile at set piece.

 
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Early in the season all eyes will be on new recruit Matt Toomua and his dance-and-biff centre combination with Manu Tuilagi. The current Wallaby and former Brumbies star is a cut above in class from anyone Leicester has had in midfield for some time, and fans will have high hopes after a disappointing return from Jean De Villiers last season.

Toomua will bring speed and guile to the backline and his ability to unleash the lightning bolt Telusa Veainu and the world-class JP Pietersen will have a big bearing on the Tigers season. Perhaps more importantly his presence in the squad should relieve some pressure from Freddie Burns and help in the ongoing development of Manu Tuilagi. The England centre remains limited but is still young enough to attempt some Nonu-esque development. Young centres Matt Smith and George Catchpole should also benefit. With the gameplan constantly being tinkered with by Aaron Mauger we should see some eye catching stuff this season.

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To go one better than 2015-16 Leicester need to get the forwards somewhere near the standards of their glory days, because they have the class behind them to beat anyone.

Last Year: 4th, lost in Play-offs Semi-Final

Prediction: An improvement on last season, but the forward pack will still not quite be where it needs to be. 3rd on the table; semi-finalists.

Head Coach: Richard Cockerill

Ins: Matt Toomua (from Brumbies), JP Pietersen (from Sharks), Tom Brady (from Sale Sharks), George McGuigan (from Newcastle Falcons), Pat Cilliers (from Montpellier), Luke Hamilton (from Agen), Ellis Genge (from Bristol).

Outs: Leonardo Ghiraldini (to Toulouse), Tommy Bell (to London Irish), Laurence Pearce (to Sale Sharks), Vereniki Goneva (to Newcastle Falcons), Miles Benjamin (retired), Seremaia Bai (retired), Sebastian De Chaves (to London Irish), Michael van Vuuren (to Bath), Jean de Villiers (retired/released), George Tresidder (to Rotherham Titans), Jordan Crane (to Bristol), Tiziano Pasquali (to Benetton Treviso), Matías Agüero (to Provence), Christian Loamanu (to Provence), Niall Morris (to Leinster), Sam Yawayawa (to Nottingham).

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J
JW 39 minutes ago
All Black star Richie Mo'unga stuck in stalemate in Japan

Richie is a great passer too, don't get me wrong. But if I'm picking Mo'unga's direct attack were he threatened the desences in 23' by having the ball in both hands, or Dmac's 24' backline where theyre super deep and he has to run sideways doing skip passes, I choose the 23 backline.


As a first five, Dmac has no threat on the carry, he's too small to bust through, that's why you don't see him try it like Mo'unga does. Dmac can still try to carry (when he should just give it to someone else) as his bailout option when under pressure, but thankfully with the forward dominance it's not so much an occurrence/issue.


Somehow Spew, but we haven't seen that because of the Dmac issue I outlined. It's generally the 10 that doubles around. I don't trust Jordies instincts at doing it either, even in his role of laying it back I don't think he's the one. So while I agree it's a powerful attacking play I don't think it's an option for the All Blacks either. Rieko just hasn't been able to catch the ball, it's pretty much his only problem. You can't see that changing though. I'd imagine they just can that play as something theyre not capable of too rather than change people in and out.


I perhaps go for something more simple, like runners from deep coming into the line at different angles. No so much about width like they were last year, just simple inside or out passes to Clarke/Jordan/Telea straitening the line. We want to see something different happen this year because if its the same I think we'll all be calling for heads again.

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