Mike Ford handed revised role at Leicester following recruitment of new attack coach
Mike Ford will take on a different role at Leicester next season following the recruitment of Rob Taylor as attack coach. The Tigers have struggled for points this season, their tally of 207 in 13 Gallagher Premiership outings just five points more scored than Worcester’s meagre 202.
With Steve Borthwick soon to arrive at Welford Road as head coach and Geordan Murphy moving up to become director of rugby, there is the mood for a big change at the club. Twenty-one players were confirmed departures on Monday at the end of the season and after announcing earlier on Wednesday the capture of Springboks World Cup-winning assistant Aled Walters as head of athletic performance, the Tigers have further stirred the pot with the recruitment of the unheralded Taylor.
Former Bath boss Ford – the father of England and Leicester out-half George – initially linked up with Murphy during last season’s scramble to avoid Premiership relegation. Following a review headed by Pat Howard, the ex-England and Ireland assistant then took on the attack coach brief for 2019/20. However, he will now switch to defence, the area of expertise where he initially made his name in rugby union after he moved across from rugby league to link up with Eddie O’Sullivan’s Ireland in 2002.
Taylor, meanwhile, joins from Sydney University in Australia where he has won four Premiership titles in his four seasons at the Shute Shield club in both their colts and senior programmes. He was also the head coach for the NSW Country Eagles in Australia’s National Rugby Championship, but it was in his native New Zealand where he first made waves, coaching Auckland University before moving on to Mitre 10 Cup level with the Auckland province.
The changes keep on coming at Leicester.https://t.co/BBBMVe4CAP
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 4, 2020
Having grown up in Wellington, he moved to England to work with Ernst & Young and helped establish the John Macphail scholarship with the Scottish Rugby Union which has provided opportunities for young players and coaches from Scotland to play and coach abroad since 2005. Recipients of this grant have included John Barclay, Finn Russell and Chris Paterson.
“It was a big honour to get a call from Leicester Tigers,” said Taylor to the Leicester Tigers website. “Every rugby person knows who Leicester Tigers are and what they have achieved in their history. It’s a very exciting prospect with the roster Tigers have.
“It’s a privilege to get this chance to work with the likes of the players at Leicester already and the high-quality players coming in like Matt Scott and Nemani Nadolo. I’m really looking forward to it. However, I am also really passionate about the younger guys at the club and how they come through to the first team.”
With the addition of Taylor and Walters alongside the incoming Borthwick, Murphy feels the balance is now right at Tigers. “It’s a new-look group for us next season,” he said. “With Mike Ford moving into defence where he has worked at the highest levels in the game, and the additions in Steve, Rob and Aled all adding their own unique skills and experience, we feel we are a much better and balanced group to take the club forward.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments