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England out-half George Ford has delivered a damning assessment of his Leicester team as they head into a potential relegation decider with Newcastle on Friday having suffered a seven-try hammering by Premiership leaders Exeter, their heaviest defeat in the league since 1988.
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Ford wasn’t even born when that previous debacle happened, but he is very much at the heart of Leicester’s current problems which sees them in 10th place just five points ahead of bottom of the table Newcastle.
To make a desperate situation even worse, Leicester will be without captain Tom Youngs and brother Ben for the rest of the season which has just four regular matches left for the once mighty Tigers. Tom was sent off in the debilitating 52-20 loss to Exeter, who are now guaranteed a home play-off tie, while Ben is out for three months after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Ford, who was one of the few Leicester players to impress against Exeter, did not hold back after the match stating: “It’s not acceptable by any means to concede 50 points. We just haven’t been good enough and that is why we are in the position we are in. The table doesn’t lie and you are in that position for a reason.
“We haven’t once talked about relegation and all we are concentrating on is the next game. With it being Newcastle who are in a similar position to us, it is a big game.
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“Conceding 50 points – it’s not good is it? Not a great feeling and I don’t know if it’s a shock, it is more a case of Exeter being very good. Things unravelled in the second half and we were chasing our tails too much.
“We don’t help ourselves in games and I am not going to say that everything is going against us. It’s how you react and get momentum back in a game and things are never plain sailing over the 80 mins and we have to be better at seeing things through and come out the other end.”
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Ford admits the loss of the Youngs brothers is a bitter blow to take when they need everyone on deck for the Newcastle clash. “Obviously it is a blow to lose brilliant international players like that.
“Ben is out for the rest of the season and what he can bring is an attacking threat and his experience while Tom sets our standard in the forward pack in terms of physicality but we have experienced players to come into those positions. The most important thing is to get a plan together for Newcastle and commit to it.
'This club expects to win trophies. We expect to be up there at the top and we’re not… this is not good enough'
– @TomYoungs87 talks to @heagneyl about Leicester's unprecedented battle with Premiership relegation ??? https://t.co/QdUuqKAjXJ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 4, 2019
“It isn’t the biggest game I have played for Leicester – it’s just the next one. Newcastle are savvy and hard to beat. All we can do is giver ourselves the best chance to beat Newcastle on Friday night.
“We are conceding far too easily with missed tackles and gave away tries chasing the game. We have to be harder to score against and to beat. Exeter are brilliant – what a team they are – and they show how much work we have to do.”
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Ford did find something to be positive about with Leicester fighting back to 28-20 at half-time before letting the game slip away and having Youngs sent off in the 56th minute.
He added: “I thought the courage we showed to keep fighting back after letting in easy points early on and they got a sizeable lead but it was a show of courage to keep fighting back and get to 20-28 at half-time. We fired a few show of our own which we haven’t done in recent weeks although its not good to lose by that many points.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments