Borthwick hailed as world’s best forwards coach
TIGERS’ PACK IS A JOY TO PLAY BEHIND – YOUNGS
BEN Youngs labelled Steve Borthwick “the best forwards coach in the world” after Leicester Tigers booked their place in the European Challenge Cup quarterfinals.
Tigers’ potent rolling maul delivered a brace of scores for hooker Charlie Clare and also saw Harry Wells cross the line in their 48-32 win over Connacht at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday.
It is a weapon that has been key to Tigers’ rise to within eight points off the Gallagher Premiership top four and into the last eight of Europe, where they will host Newcastle Falcons on Saturday (12.30pm).
Youngs operated behind a Tigers pack for the first time in 10 club games due to his England commitments and was influential in the seven-try victory.
“When you’ve got the best forwards coach in the world as your man at the helm, your pack and your drive is always going to be good,” said Youngs.
“The boys have made huge growth and that’s testament to all the hard work they’re putting in, countless hours on the training field, going through walkthroughs, going through drills, going through everything.”
Borthwick, right, left out Tom Youngs, Ellis Genge, Dan Cole and
Hanro Liebenberg
from his pack for Saturday evening’s game, but still delivered a performance characteristic of Tigers’ turnaround in fortunes in recent months.
“What I love is we’ve got a real consistency to it,” said Youngs, who played his 73rd match in Europe for the club. “Regardless of who was out on the field. We had two debutants, whoever is on the pitch it’s a weapon and that consistency is absolutely key. “For any halfback to sit behind a pack that drives, sucks in defenders, gives you space. “One of our breaks came off the back of a real dominant maul that sucked them in and we were able to give it to the width. It’s a great forward pack to sit behind.
“When you’ve got Jasper [Wiese], rumbling off the back of it, you kind of just sit in the slipstreams really.”
The Tigers’ starting backline against Connacht had 264 starts between them, with Youngs accounting for 203 of those, and he was rewarded with the captaincy on the occasion of his first club game in three months.
“The youth bring so much enthusiasm, I just feed off it,” said the 109-times capped England star. “It was such a great honour, they’ve responded brilliantly all week.
“I’ve got great guys around me, Jasper [Wiese] is in there, you’ve still got Tomas Lavanini who has a huge amount of experience, [Matias] Moroni, [Matt] Scott.
“It was about going out there, giving the boys some enthusiasm, making sure they’re nice and relaxed to go and attack it and I thought they did that in abundance.
“Often you can cloud your mind when you’re given the armband when really all you’ve got to do is try and play well yourself and set your example that way.”