Competition in squad helping to improve our quality, says Bateman

COMPETITION for places at Leicester Tigers is coming into its own this season, according to prop Greg Bateman, writes Harry Morgan.

The European Challenge Cup campaign, in which Tigers won five of their six pool matches to reach the last eight, saw many of the wider squad given opportunities in first team.

Front-rower Bateman, below, says the competition for places has seen an improvement in the squad’s overall quality.

“I think that’s the only way that you can keep a good performance environment – if you’ve got lads chomping at the bit for your space and you’re chomping at the bit for somebody else’s,” he said.

“True competition is what breeds that performance environment and the quality of the squad we’ve got has got better over the past couple of years, so I think we’re in a pretty good spot.”

Tigers’ England contingent are now on Six Nations duty and Wales’ Jonah Holmes has also been called up by his country. That means the rest of the squad will have to step up.

Bateman sees no problems there and says a tough pre-season means the squad has become a lot tighter, which helps them on the pitch.

“This group now is often the group that did the pre-season together,” he said.

“The England boys were away and we did the Army camp together and the Portugal camp together.

“We’ve been through that tough, gritty grind together and it’s not like these are lads we haven’t trained with every day just because the England lads are here.

“Those lads are going to want to put their hands up and want to get involved.”