Calum can give Tigers new lift-off in lineout
LINEOUT king Calum Green aims to bring his set-piece prowess to the fore after going back to the future in a bid to fire Leicester into title contention.
Academy product Green quit Tigers for Leeds in 2012 after finding his route to the first team blocked by Ed Slater and England stars Geoff Parling and Louis Deacon.
After honing his trade in Yorkshire before spending five years at Newcastle, where he helped establish the Geordie lineout as one of the Premiership’s finest, Green returns to a place he calls ‘home’ as Leicester look to atone for last season.
He told The Rugby Paper:
“It’s weird and it feels like going back in time, but I’m massively excited to be here again. It’s the club I grew up supporting so to come back now is pretty special and I just hope we can get off to a good start and thrive again.
“When I left, we had international second rows in Louis and Geoff and Ed Slater was competing as well, so it was really tough getting chances.
“It was no one’s fault, that’s just the way it was and it was probably good to go away and learn.
“I feel a better player for it and in my time at Newcastle we built and got up to eighth place and then fourth, but last season we got relegated. We thought we’d been heading in the right direction but it shows how competitive the Premiership is.
“I played my best rugby there, though, and I was older and had good coaches in John Wells and Scott MacLeod. The lineout stuff was really good and it’s great when you get given opportunities to play a lot of games on the bounce and refine things.”
Green added: “I wasn’t particularly looking to move clubs but when Leicester and Geordan Murphy came in it obviously got me interested. It just seemed to make sense at this stage of my career because it’s a good club that’s close to me.
“I loved my time at Newcastle and some of my best mates are still there, but I’m from Norfolk and Leicester’s a lot nearer to my family. It’s a place I’m very familiar with, a place I can call home and it was too good a chance to turn down.”
Green’s failure to be selected by England was a cause of great annoyance to his former Newcastle boss Dean Richards, who regularly extolled the virtues of his lineout leader. Might moving to a bigger club like Leicester boost his chances?
“I don’t really think about that,” said Green, 29. “Mark Wilson’s done well and maybe if Newcastle had had another good year last season, we might have started getting a little bit more attention and a few more players into that England squad.
“I just want to try and play well for Leicester and if you’re playing well for a great Leicester team who are in the top four, who knows?”
Leicester’s pack has failed to strike fear into opposition teams in recent years but with experienced Argentine Tomas Lavanini set to join Green and teammate Will Spencer in the Tigers engine room post-World Cup, that could all change.
Green added: “We want to be an uncompromising pack and we’ve got some real good young players among our forwards. We’re well coached by Mark Bakewell and Boris Stankovich so everything’s in place and we aim to make an impact.”