Five-year high offers a glimpse of silverware in the near future
“CONNACHT have no reason to fear much-changed Leicester at Welford Road” stated Irish sports paper The 42. Hopefully the astute Steve Borthwick had that blown up and placed in the home dressing room before Leicester’s last 16 Challenge Cup tie against the Irish at Welford Road.
With only this competition to play for, a familiar referee from the Pro 14 and the already mentioned much-changed Leicester line-up, the Irish arrogance might not have been pleasant but I for one feared they might be right.
Instead I am happy to eat my words as the Tigers put in what was, without hyperbole and in context, their best performance for something like five years.
We’d noted that on occasions the “rotated” side had almost played better, in relative terms and subject to expectation, than the nominal first choice side, but this was the first time that expectations had been so comprehensively exceeded and rewarded with victory.
The backline, led by Ben Youngs in one of his best outings for Tigers in years, was ferocious in defence and clinical in attack, whilst the forwards dominated their Irish rivals.
Discipline may have been an issue, but there was also the fact Leicester suffered from unfamiliar interpretations as we’d discussed before, so it needs to be worked on but not be quite the level of worry it might otherwise have been.
Certainly there are things to work on. Three tries conceded through the centre of the breakdown is one obvious area, and penalty count is another. However, the manner of the win will have made many of us believers in a much brighter future.
Put this into context – the forwards featured only Jasper Wiese from last weeks starting eight (but how superb was he?) On the bench Harry Wells was the only player older than 22, and most were considerably younger than that.
Zach Henry played only his second game at full back for the Tigers, whilst at the start of the season Johnny McPhillips would have been seen as fourth choice fly half (although obviously not any more after a commanding display of game management.)
It’s difficult to pick out all the positives from so many, but Charlie Clare is applying genuine pressure to Tom Youngs for the hooker’s starting spot and Matias Moroni grows with each game.
There is a theme there – Leicester are, after too many years, improving players again.
Silverware is too much to hope for this season, but it is no longer unthinkable in the near future.