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Kyle Eastmond's red card 'killed us' says Leicester coach Geordan Murphy

By Online Editors
(Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

Leicester have slumped to a 41-10 defeat at the hands of Bristol for six straight losses. The Tigers were forced to play with 14-men for the majority of the match after centre Kyle Eastmond was red-carded for a high shot on Ian Madigan.

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The high tackle occurred in the 25th minute, which Leicester coach Geordan Murphy thought ‘killed us’.

“It is huge in a game like that,” Murphy said.

“We had a particularly poor start to the game. We conceded a try from the very first set-piece strike which is obviously something we didn’t want.

“In saying that we managed to pull it back to 10-7 and at that stage, I thought it was going to be a good game and pretty tight and then that high tackle kills us.

“Down to 14 men against Bristol who want to throw the ball around, it is always going to be a very long day at the office.”

Bristol then ran away with the match with hooker Harry Thacker grabbing a double and Luke Morahan scoring a notable try by beating English winger Johnny May.

In other news:

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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