Title hero criticises ‘ridiculous’ reliance on kicking

ANDY Goode criticised Leicester Tigers’ over-reliance upon their kicking game following the defeat to Wasps.

Sunday’s loss was Tigers’ first of the season as they failed to build upon a six-point half-time lead at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Jimmy Gopperth landed three second-half penalties to earn a 16-13 win for the hosts.

Leicester stuck firmly to their game plan of putting boot to ball, kicking 41 times across the 80 minutes, but ultimately came up just short of win number 16 in all competitions this season.

Speaking on The Rugby Pod, former title-winning Tigers fly-half Goode shared his thoughts on Leicester’s tactics.

“I’m going to say one thing about Leicester and it might be controversial because they’ve won all of their games up until this point,” he said. “Over the last few weeks, especially against Wasps at the weekend, the amount they kick the ball is ridiculous.

“I know it’s their game plan of playing no rugby in their own half, but with five minutes to go, Ollie Chessum, who is making a break down the wing, even he is kicking it, it is so far drilled into them.

“I think they’ve got into a position now where they’re thinking, if we just keep playing this way, we might not lose the game. So they’re playing not to lose as opposed to playing to win it.

“When you get to knock-out rugby, you can’t have that mentality, you need a bit more to your game.”

Tigers’ current fly-half George Ford was the main protagonist in the kicking game, with his trademark spiral bombs wreaking havoc in the Wasps’ backline.

Statistics show Ford’s kicks totalled 658 metres of distance against Wasps, the second-highest he has registered all season.

Goode, who also spent two seasons at Wasps towards the end of his career, said: “It sounds weird, but I think the loss will actually do Leicester a bit of a favour.

“It might force them to play a bit further into the half. George Ford is playing well but he’s just kicking the leather off it. I dread to think how many kicks he put in, in the game, and this is coming from me – all I could do, not that well, was kick.

“You want to see Leicester playing a bit more. They should’ve won that comfortably, in terms of how things panned out.”