Skipper says Taufua can lift quality of Leicester’s play
LEICESTER Tigers captain Tom Youngs believes that the best is yet to come from back-row forward Jordan Taufua.
The former Crusaders forward made an outstanding home debut against Exeter Chiefs last weekend and can emerge as a key man in what remains of Leicester’s season.
“Jordan is a typical New Zealander, they know the game inside out,” said the Tigers skipper.
“He is bringing some good leadership, helping there. I think there is more to come from him as he gets more settled.
“He was outstanding against Exeter and that is the player we signed, and the sort of person we want in this environment with that shirt on.”
Youngs hopes that the qualities displayed by Taufua will help the side find the level of consistency they are looking for, which in return will bring improved results - starting with today’s visit to Harlequins at Twickenham.
“The ultimate is a performance and we have been frustrated that we haven’t been able to do that,” Youngs said.
“We still haven’t delivered an 80-minute performance but at least we got some really good stuff to look at against Exeter last week.
“I think that was probably one of the best games we’ve played this season, certainly in the first 50 or 60 minutes, but unfortunately we just couldn’t quite get a foothold in the last 20.
“What we probably have to do better against Quins is ride those momentums a little bit better, so you don’t go negative, negative, negative – you go from a negative into a positive.
“We did that in the first half of the game (against Exeter), but didn’t quite do that at the back end of the game.”
He added: “We always want to win, and we obviously didn’t do that against Exeter. We felt like we did enough in the game to do that, but we were playing against a very good Exeter team who are much further down the line than we are in the way they play things, and the way they cope and adapt to things.
“We showed what we want to be about in the first 50, 60 minutes. Now it’s about putting on the finishing touches and doing it for the full 80.”