The toothless Tigers - the worrying aspects of Leicester's attack
A trip to Sandy Park is no easy task – the Exeter Chiefs have not conceded a loss in over 20 games at their home ground. Despite coming against the odds in their Premiership season opener, what Leicester dished up was frightening.
You expect rust, you expect a lack of fitness – you don’t expect a performance as aimless and meandering as what Leicester offered up. Exeter themselves were below their best for sixty minutes, but were never bothered at any stage by a lackluster Tigers outfit and finished with a flurry to bury the visitors 40-6.
The most worrying aspect of the game was the severe lack of intent to use the ball by the Tigers. When George Ford is continually plugging the corners from the attacking 40-metre line, you know you have strategic problems. The first five or six possessions in Exeter’s half were kicked away, many uncontested or returned for a 22 dropout – a pointless exercise in giving the ball away.
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Ford’s kicking game is both his biggest strength and biggest weakness. He can drop it on a pin and expose wingers for huge territorial gains, but then doesn’t have a handle on when possession needs to be kept in hand. His ability to read the game situation and make sound kicking decisions seems non-existent. His go-to play of trying a kick is almost like a last resort because he can’t think of anything else or worse – there is no pattern for the side to fall back into.
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After the first half of this game you could be forgiven for thinking ‘when are the Tigers going to play any rugby’. This was exemplified by the fact that Manu Tuilagi’s first touch of the game didn’t come until the 46th minute.
Heading into the wind in the second half, the team’s first possession went a good 60-metres on the back of some probing runs by Ford and May, putting Exeter on the back foot for the first time in the match. Knocking on the door of the 22, Ford tried another poor kick, an all-or-nothing grubber that was knocked on by May that would have gone into touch anyway.
This side has international talents Matt Toomua, Jonny May and Telusa Veainu wasting away on the fringes, watching on in despair as the side is continually forced to defend after either kicking the ball away or turning it over with errors.
Poor lineout set-piece and ball security issues plagued the forward pack, with only the strong ball carrying of flanker David Denton and the strength of the front row at scrum time offering a shining light in the performance.
After a first half of holding only a third of possession, the Tigers were forced to play more ball-in-hand in the second stanza. They struggled to build any continuity, with no discernible pattern to build pressure.
A problem seems to be the play of halfback Ben Youngs, who could be the most technically poor halfback in the competition.
His release and ball velocity are good, it’s the time taken to get the ball released that’s the problem. Picking up the ball, loading up the pass and even taking a few steps before passing upright is a sure way to cause problems with your own attack, creating slow ball to work with. He cannot fire the ball off the deck, standing up every time, and makes slow distribution decisions.
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His work in-and-around the ruck looks lazy, with no urgency to find the ball and he often looks like he doesn’t know where the ball should go – another sign the Tigers have no idea what pattern they are in.
Here below is a four-second ruck for no other reason than Youngs wants to play a forward pod back to the left when his backs are open and ready to the right the same way. With no contest for the ball, Exeter can reload and bring line speed easily with this slow delivery.
There are times when playing slow can be beneficial, the problem with Youngs is there seems to be only one speed and he can’t lift the tempo.
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When you add in the fact that his accuracy can be wayward at times, it’s hard to see where the Tigers will get better with this halves combination. Ford’s decision-making and Youngs’ technical ability compound the problems.
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The team came under fire last year as similar issues persisted with the return of Australian coach Matt O’Connor from the Queensland Reds, and the chorus of doubters will only grow louder after this opening performance.
His season as the attack and backs coach with the Super Rugby franchise in 2016 ended abruptly after one of the worst seasons in Reds history, where the team was widely criticised for poor and almost non-existent structure – these issues are looming once again.
His stint before that with Irish club Leinster ended just two years into a three-year deal after the side fell apart with deteriorating play under his watch, criticised for a lack of creative running rugby. In his first season, he won the Pro12 with a squad of players inherited from current Ireland coach Joe Schmidt.
He returned to the Tigers in 2017, back to where he found his first coaching success, winning two Premiership titles as an assistant to Richard Cockerill in 2009 and 2010. Cockerill was promoted to Director of Rugby at the club, opening the pathway for O’Connor to take the head-coaching job in 2011. Leicester were losing finalists back-to-back before capturing a third title in five years in 2013.
O’Connor’s coaching career has been unusual with success achieved with inherited squads before either rapid decline or quickly moving on. Last year with O’Connor in charge was the first time the Tigers missed the Premiership playoffs in over a decade (and his first at the club without Cockerill).
Since this success in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, it could be said the English game has modernised, but the Tigers have not. Exeter’s own rise has been on the back of a possession-based game and others like Saracens and Wasps have also played an attacking style of rugby and remain the Premiership’s power clubs.
Based on the opening game, the Tigers need to find a fresh direction and fast if they are going to salvage this season. That means finding an innovative coach who has a track record of success with modern attacking play, rather than looking to play 10-man rugby from the past to find the answer.
Comments on RugbyPass
Look, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
169 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
169 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
169 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
169 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the deportation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
169 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
169 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
169 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
169 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
169 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
169 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
169 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
169 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
169 Go to comments