True grit and trust in youth key to Borthwick’s Tigers revival
Coach has put the bite back in Leicester squad since taking over last year, so how has he made them tick again?
Pride in the shirt
When Steve Borthwick was appointed Leicester head coach in January 2020, they were battling relegation after ending the previous season 11th in the Premiership table.
Just three years earlier, the Tigers had lost a Premiership semi-final, so the former England forwards coach would have been under no illusions about the Leicester fester. That famous Tigers snarl, a trait of many of their champion sides, had gone.
Last month, Geordan Murphy, Leicester’s former director of rugby, told “The Good, The Bad and The Rugby” podcast: “I thought the culture had eroded over a good few years. There were some players who didn’t want to be there.” In an ironic twist, it required Borthwick, a former son of Bath – Leicester’s nemesis and their opponents tomorrow – to excavate the club’s ethos.
Fighting for the Premiership top six and featuring in a European semi-final is a marked improvement. And it is the edge underpinning it that has turned heads.
“It might well have been the first day, when I wanted to learn a little more about the players. I asked one of the training groups to leave the field,” Borthwick said earlier this season. “Because the standard at which they were performing, their attitude wasn’t the sufficient standard that I expected.”
Back to basics
England’s grandest club are not certain of a top-half Premiership finish. And yet optimism is high because the catalysts for the Tigers’ revival have been courage and together
ness; qualities admired by Leicester’s denizens, who spent years shrieking in elation and petrification as the “ABC Club” and the Tuilagi brothers pummelled opponents.
The facets that best germinate those rugged qualities are the game’s fundamentals, which is where Borthwick has concentrated efforts. No Premiership team have scored more maul tries this season. Leicester’s defence is more tenacious, their line-out is more fluid,
and they concede fewer turnovers. They have reduced the amount of carries per match, and the number of defenders beaten and clean breaks, but the tallies for points and tries are all greater. It might be more conservative, but it is more efficient.
“You have to be very respectful of the club’s fabric and history,” Borthwick says. “There are certain expectations around Leicester, with the rich history, of the way they should go about their play.”
Trust in youth
Until George Martin last month, the last Leicester academy product to debut for England while at the club was hooker Tom Youngs. A chasm has emerged between the era of the Youngs brothers and Dan Cole and the era of Martin.
Leicester have suffered due to their inability to transition their academy starlets into stars, resulting in a paucity of twentysomething Englishmen in their squad.
Borthwick addressed that pathway, taking advantage of Saracens extinguishing the relegation threat last season by employing a cavalier rotation policy. No team used more players in matchday squads – which resulted in some shellackings.
But Borthwick’s faith also unearthed gems. Full-back Freddie Steward and lock Martin are now regular starters, and there is also prop Joe Heyes, scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet, lock Cameron Henderson and centre Dan Kelly.
The departure of several outstanding players – Manu Tuilagi among them – might have forced Borthwick’s hand, but their departure makes the nascent stages of his Leicester rebuild yet more commendable. And his Tigers are beginning to purr.