Cole relying on Wiggy to drive Tigers standards
PREVIEW... London Irish v Leicester Today. Kick-off 4.15pm, Brentford Community Stadium
LEICESTER prop Dan Cole is backing veteran scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth to help his side surge to their best Premiership start in five years.
Last week’s 38-15 thrashing of Gloucester was Tigers’ first opening day win since they defeated the same opponents 38-31 in 2016.
The year before that Leicester began the campaign with a pair of victories and, as they break new ground against London Irish at Brentford today, Cole, below, says the influence of 37-year-old Wigglesworth is crucial.
“Wiggy’s had a big impact very quickly,” Cole said. “He’s only been here two weeks and you notice his experience straight away. He’s obviously played a lot of rugby and been in very successful sides, so he fits how we want to play.
“You saw against Gloucester how seamless his transition was, which shows how professional he is and how well he prepared for that game. The No.9s and 10s here can learn a lot off him because we’ve got a very young group behind him and Ben Youngs.
“He brings our average age up quite a lot but he’ll be good for those guys and, hopefully, as a team we can harness that knowledge.”
While Leicester were impressive against Gloucester, Cole knows they face an entirely different challenge against an Irish side who are doubly motivated.
He said: “Irish will want to rebound (from losing to Worcester) and also set a marker down in their new stadium. It will be a great day and exciting for both teams, but we want to continue what we started and our focus will be on that.
“Victories are hard to come by so when you get them you must enjoy it. But it’s just one game, one performance and you don’t know how good your opponents are on the basis of one game, so we’re not getting carried away.”
Along with Wigglesworth, Cole was one of Leicester’s standout performers against Gloucester and appears to be benefitting from not having to concern himself with the mental toll of toing and froing with England for the first time in over ten years.
Asked if he was feeling fresher as a result, 95-cap Cole,
33, added: “Probably. All the boys come back from England duty in pretty good shape physically, it’s more the mental side of adapting back to your club that can be the most demanding part of it.
“I think we’ve also made massive ground recently in the way we train and prepare physically for games and there’s been a shift in how training and playing loads are monitored.
“Ten years ago, we used to play games on Tuesdays and Thursdays in training, whereas now you can’t do that because of sports science, size of squads and the rest of it. Physically, I’m feeling pretty good and long may that continue.”
Like Cole, London Irish head coach Les Kiss identifies Wigglesworth’s threat and also wants his side to step up their accuracy from last week’s 11-10 loss.
Kiss said: “Wigglesworth’s already made a difference and Leicester’s back row was dominant as well. Cole and Tom Youngs held the set-piece together and they came out to make a point and did a good job. “The way they played the pressure game was impressive so we’ll have to deal with that and then be a bit more accurate between the 22s. We were a bit frivolous in possession at Worcester and that’s what cost us.”