TIGER KING
Borthwick has overseen a remarkable revival at Leicester — by embracing the old-school culture that drove past glories
STEVE BORTHWICK captained England. He worked for his national team, the richest and bestresourced in the world, as a coach under Eddie Jones.
His playing career at club level was split between Bath, one of the country’s grandest old sides, and Saracens, the rich, brash usurpers.
But those who have paid close attention to his career speak of a man who never quite fitted in as part of the establishment.
Despite enjoying central positions at some of the institutional forces in rugby, Borthwick never seemed fully absorbed into those institutions.
If there is the spirit of an outsider in him, it has served him very well in turning around another mighty English force.
Leicester Tigers, the joke once went, had installed a new circular table in the boardroom, so that they could become even more inward-looking. The gag was made some time in the past decade, as the club slipped further and further out of domestic and European relevance.
Leicester’s might, best exemplified for international audiences in the first decade or so of the European Cup, saw them feared even in France. Between 1997 and 2009, they contested the final of the Cup five times, winning it in 2001 and retaining it in 2002 (on the latter occasion, famously, at the expense of Munster).
Those victories were the culmination of a run that saw Leicester win nine trophies in 10 years.
They were also European Cup runners-up in 1997, 2007 and 2009. In the 2009 decider, Leinster edged them out and thereafter the teams went in sharply diverging directions.
Leicester sank so low that they finished 11 of the 12 sides in England’s Premiership two seasons in a row, in 2019 and 2020. They were only spared relegation in the second of those years by the demotion in disgrace of Saracens after a points deduction following the salary cap scandal.
Almost 13 years after Leinster and Leicester clashed on European rugby’s biggest days, they come together on Saturday in Welford Road for another big event.
The temptation to frame the game as a study in contrasting fortunes doesn’t quite fit. Leinster are widely fancied to progress, and deserve to be favourites given their sensational form at times this campaign.
Yet it can also be definitively declared that if Leicester are not back, they are clawing their way closer to the summit.
And Borthwick’s role in their recovery is very significant indeed.
The 42-year-old is not especially comfortable discussing as much.
He has spoken of the ‘chronic unease’ he feels when asked to assess his impact at the club, and that fits with the impression of an introverted character.
This resulted in some starchy exchanges with journalists over the years; Borthwick rarely appeared comfortable behind a microphone, and gave the impression that he finds media duties an exasperating distraction. But his actions are a vivid representation of his talents. Leicester may be the underdogs for Saturday evening, but they are clearly a club rising again. They lead Saracens at the top of the Premiership by four points and will easily make the play-offs. The Tigers have not won the title since 2013, but look good on ending that wait this time. Borthwick never played for Leicester, but by the time he arrived there, he had a fine record in coaching and his signal achievement was lasting four years working under Jones with England, after spending three as part of the Jones team at Japan. Reports of the sometimes brutal environment Jones has fostered at England suggest nobody, player or staff, felt the head coach’s wrath more than Borthwick. It speaks to his character that not only was he able to survive in that environment, but he thrived. He was hugely respected by the players and when Leicester announced in January 2020 that he would join as head coach at the end of that year’s Six Nations, it was reported as a coup for the club.
An Ireland legend was collateral, though. Geordan Murphy, perhaps the most admired figure in Leicester’s history, was a star player there. He won eight Premierships and was there for the two European Cup wins, too.
But after a series of coaching roles and a time as interim chief, he was made head coach in December 2018, just as the club hurtled towards rock bottom.
Murphy could not turn around the decline, and the arrival of Borthwick was to see him move to a role as director of rugby.
By November 2020, though, Murphy was gone, and while it was reported as a decision agreed by both Murphy and club representatives — it was seen as a decisive power tilt towards Borthwick.
Murphy subsequently talked about how the culture of the club had eroded over the years, with bad signings and a churning cast of head coaches contributing to the rot. In that context, the appointment of Borthwick has been a success, and the cold decision to get rid of Murphy has been justified.
As well as the technical improvements overseen under Borthwick, the cultivation of a successful culture has been critical.
But what is noteworthy is how it has evolved from the conditions under which Leicester thrived in the 1990s and the 2000s.
For as much as the club won in those years, the culture from which some of the success sprang was brutal. It was an old-school sporting hot-house, where might was right and young players were expected to suffer in a merciless proving ground.
The best that could be said is that it was of its time, but Borthwick is overseeing a more enlightened club.
Young players are encouraged to take responsibility and speak their minds, which is useful given the bloom of fresh talent that has emerged in recent seasons.
Gifted youngsters are nothing new at a club whose record for introducing new faces was good even in the bad years, but Borthwick has cannily supported the greenhorns with experience.
The signings of Chris Ashton and Richard Wigglesworth have proven inspired, with the former — a former team-mate of the head coach — still in excellent scoring form.
More importantly he, along with Wigglesworth and the Youngs brothers, have added leadership. Tom Youngs bade farewell to Welford Road in emotional circumstances last weekend — retiring because his wife is battling illness.
It came before the Tigers hammered Bristol by 30 points, and the afternoon encapsulated the sweep of changes at the club.
They still look some way off the peaks of the European game they once ruled, and were they to beat Leinster it would be a big shock.
However, they are mustering some of the strength of old, under the shrewd and often inspired leadership of one of the game’s most conspicuous outsider.