Tigers stars back at training ground for the new season

YOUNGS AND FORD AMONG BIG NAMES TO RETURN

LEICESTER Tigers players have returned to Oval Park for pre-season training under the watchful eye of head coach Steve Borthwick and his backroom staff ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.

Members of the senior squad and senior academy squad were among the 30-plus players to reconvene at the club’s training ground, including a host of new faces to have joined Tigers in the summer.

Juan Pablo Socino, Francois van Wyk and Dan Richardson linked up with their new Leicester team-mates for the first time, while Freddie Burns donned a Tigers kit for the first time in four years.

Ben Youngs and George Ford, who sat out the summer Tests against Canada and USA, made a rare week one return to pre-season training alongside fellow internationals Dan Cole, Tom Youngs, Nephi Leatigaga, Jaco Taute and Richard Wigglesworth.

Lewis Chessum, Jacob Cusick, Tim Hoyt and Seb Smith took part in their first squad sessions after making the step-up to senior rugby during the summer from the Tigers Academy.

The week began with a “bronco test” for the players, overseen by head of physical performance Aled

Walters, before an immediate reintroduction to rugby sessions led by Borthwick, below, and his assistant coaches.

Walters and Matt Parr, the club’s strength and conditioning lead, ensured it wasn’t all rugby though, with bike and gym sessions testing the players in the warm conditions.

In encouraging signs for supporters, more than two months out from the start of the new season, Cyle Brink, Harry Potter, Calum Green, Leatigaga and Taute – who finished the last campaign on the injured list – were among those training in preparation for the new season.

Among those players yet to report back for pre-season training are England’s summer squad members Ellis Genge, Joe Heyes, Dan Kelly, Freddie Steward and Harry Wells. Tigers duo Jack van Poortvliet and Archie Vanes, as well as new recruit Dan Lancaster, will report back in the coming weeks after featuring in England’s Under-20s Six Nations clean sweep, Championship-winning campaign.

Scottish duo Cameron Henderson and Matt Scott will also rejoin their club-mates next month.

Fiji duo Kini Murimurivalu and Nemani Nadolo and Argentinian pair Julián Montoya and Matías Moroni, as well as Springboks squad members Jasper Wiese and Marco van Staden, remain in camps with their national teams for their summer schedules.