Leicester Tigers 2019-20

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Fixtures


September
13th Misc - Premiership Sevens, Pool Fixtures
14th Misc - Premiership Sevens, KO Fixtures
21st 15:00 - Worcester (a), Premiership Cup
27th 19:45 - Exeter (h), Premiership Cup

October
 5th 15:00 - Bath (a), Premiership Cup
12th 15:00 - Northampton (h), Premiership Cup
19th 15:00 - Worcester (a), Gallagher Premiership
27th 15:00 - Saracens (h), Gallagher Premiership

November
 2nd 15:00 - Gloucester (h), Gallagher Premiership
10th 15:00 - London Irish (a), Gallagher Premiership
16th 15:00 - Pau (h), Challenge Cup
23rd 20:00 - Cardiff (a), Challenge Cup
30th 15:00 - Northampton (a), Gallagher Premiership

December
 7th 15:00 - Calvisano (h), Challenge Cup
14th 13:30 - Calvisano (a), Challenge Cup
21st 15:00 - Exeter (h), Gallagher Premiership
28th 16:30 - Harlequins (a - Twickenham), Gallagher Premiership

January
 4th 15:00 - Bristol (h), Gallagher Premiership
12th 15:15 - Cardiff (h), Challenge Cup
17/18/19 - Pau (a), Challenge Cup
24/25/26 - Bath (a), Gallagher Premiership

February
14/15/16 - Wasps (h), Gallagher Premiership
21/21/23 - Sale (a), Gallagher Premiership
28/29/01 - Worcester (h), Gallagher Premiership

March
6/7/8 - Saracens (a), Gallagher Premiership
20/21/22 - Exeter (a), Gallagher Premiership
27/28/29 - Beth (h), Gallagher Premiership


April
3/4/5 - Castres (h), Challenge Cup 1/4 Final
10/11/12 - London Irish (h), Gallagher Premiership
17/18/19 - Gloucester (a), Gallagher Premiership
24/25/26 - Sale (h), Gallagher Premiership

May
8/9/10 - Wasps (a), Gallagher Premiership
15/16/17 - Northampton (h), Gallagher Premiership
29/30/31 - Bristol (a), Gallagher Premiership

June
5/6/7 - Harlequins (h), Gallagher Premiership


Squad & Coaching Team


Head Coach: Geordan Murphy
Forwards Coach: Mark Bakewell
Attack Coach: Mike Ford
Defence Coach: Phil Blake
Scrum Coach: Boris Stankovich
Senior Development coach: Brett Deacon
Team Manager: Teresa Carrington


First Team Squad:
Props (8): Greg Bateman, Dan Cole, Gaston Cortes, Ellis Genge, Facundo Gigena, Joe Heyes, Owen Hills, Nephi Leatigaga
Hookers (5): Charlie Clare, Jake Kerr, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Jimmy Stevens, Tom Youngs
Second Row (4): Calum Green, Tomas Lavanini, Will Spencer, Harry Wells
Back Row (8): Jordan Coghlan, Dave Denston, Sione Kalamafoni, Sam Lewis, Hanro Liebenberg, Tommy Reffell, Jordan Taufua, Guy Thompson
Half Backs: (8)Sam Harrison, Harry Simmons, Ben White, Ben Youngs, George Ford, Tom Hardwicke, Johnny McPhillips, Noel Reid
Outside Backs (13): Sam Aspland-Robinson, Kyle Eastmond, Andy Forsyth, Jonah Holmes, Jonny May, Jordan Olowofela, Jaco Taute, Joe Thomas, Adam Thompstone, Manu Tuilagi, Telusa Veainu, EW Viljoen, George Worth

Development Squad:
Props (3): Osman Dimen, Keston Lines, James Whitcombe
Hookers (0):
Second Row (3): Cameron Jordan, Tom Manz, George Martin
Back Row (5): Ollie Ashwoth, Sam Eveleigh, Taylor Gough, Henri Lavin, Thom Smith
Half Backs (3): Jonny Law, Jack van Poortvliet, Sam Costelow
Outside Backs (4): Joe Browning, Kyran Bungaroo, Leo Gilliland, Freddie Steward

Gigena's contract is apparently for four years.

Liebenberg called the lineout in age grade rugby but couldn't say whether he did whilst at the Bulls. I remember an interview from a former coach of his from SA talking about his leadership abilities given he was captaining, calling the lineout and a key position at number 8 all at once. An impressive young player and good signing.

Great news on Gigena if so. Genge, Gigena and Leatigaga re-signed. Coley has a few years in him yet. Hopefully Heyes has extended along with the other youngsters. Add in Montoya on the way, Mamukashvili hopefully fitting Borthwick's game plan well and the development players, we've got a front row in good health. Tim Hoyt in particular but also Seb Smith are really talented academy props as well.

Dan Cole has got a couple of years left but we can keep using him as much as we have done previously. Some of the other tightheads are going to need to take up the strain. He really should be rotated out of the match day squad for at least one game in three. He's 33 and will be 34 before the end of next season, need to keep him clear of niggling injuries for the bigger games. Just because he can play 80 minutes doesn't mean he should either.

I think Cole will be rotated more this season. I found it really interesting that Leatigaga made more match day appearances than Heyes last season but Heyes made more starts. Good management of the youngsters game time whilst giving him exposure. I think we will see Heyes start more and more games, Coley rotated more, whilst Leatigaga remains a strong bench/impact option.

I presumed that Heyes started because Leatigaga doesn't quite have the fitness for 50 minutes. He seems more of a 30 minutes impact player. It's been good for his development, Heyes looks the natural successor to Cole and we should keep giving him game time like we have this season so that he can develop into that player. Development opportunities now could very much be rewarded over the next decade just like we've been rewarded for developing Big Dan.

Do you feel like this represents the big clearout you wanted Sam? It does to me, theres certainly a lot of the "squad" players shuffled round. Its really hard to see how the premiership will pan out next season, but I don't think we will really be able to judge the impact of all the changes until the year after when the coaches have had time to make an impact.
i must say I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of players they've held onto and signed given current circumstances and the uncertainty around the future, its not a good environment to be committing to long term deals in but it does seem the boards found the money and accepted the risks.
Its the coaching staff that excites me though. Its the first time in many years I look at Tigers backroom staff and think they have the experience quality and natural authority to really get the best from whatever player resources they have. The bonus of the current situation is that the players will be getting more time together over this extended summer break than they normally would, the pre season hasn't really existed in recent times especially for those involved in tests. For a side that's rebuilding under a new coach extra time together in training should be especially beneficial.
Im optimistic that we have the building blocks in place for the recovery to begin. So much uncertainty about where club rugby will be in the next 5 years of course, but Tigers are better placed to weather it than many and will be at the table if/when franchising comes.

We've been having clear outs for a couple of years now. We needed a little bit of one this summer but it's the final bits really. I would hope next summer would see minimal personnel changes as this squad looks both young and talented enough to last. If Montoya joins next summer I'd imagine that's to replace a retiring Tom Youngs so that's just good natural succession. It'll keeping hold of Lavanini that will be the challenge.

I agree I think the club have finally done what they should have done some years back and spent money on a high profile head coach. We've clearly waited to get the man we want so I hope Borthwick can deliver. I like how we've brought in winning personalities in Borthwick from England, S&C from SA and attack coach from Sydney who could be a really shrewd acquisition because he was linked with a couple of significant jobs in Australia only to miss out to bigger names. Getting the end of the current season to experiment couldn't be better for Borthwick as it's all to gain and nothing to lose, either we move up the table and it's all a success or we don't and nothing changes.

Genge's extension officially announced.

Taute and Lenny also sign extensions. I must say I wasn't expecting Lenny re-sign again so soon. His last extension was only 1 year suggesting he fancied considering his options after the Lions tour. Financial security of a longer contract will be worth more now.

Good to see a lot of the squad extending. That will hopefully give Borthwick the continuity to build some structures and a playing style going forward.

The club have officially confirmed that Manu, Bateman, Reid, Eastmond & Veainu are no longer employees of the club.

Sigh Manu. Sale seem to be the only Premiership club seriously pursuing him, but its hard to see how they can really afford the sort of contract he would be looking for if he wasnt taking what Tigers had to offer. Its a big risk to take on anyway. France seems more likely, then he has a stark choice around whether he can get a release clause in or just shelves England.

News on the resumed premiership is 7 games in 28-34 days...then straight into a compresses 20/21 season
Tigers are in a handy position with this in having nothing to play for in those fixtures aside from a very very remote chance of making the top 6, but all clubs will be using their full squads. Good chance for the new faces to get stuck in and further opportunities for the development players to take to the field with the stars.
Not sure whats being said from England around the elite players in all this, assuming these games will be considered part of 19/20 seasons game cap they will still be concerned about so many fixtures in a short period, and although the did get a long break the world cup stars were promised additional.
Theres also likely to be some additional shoehorned international fixtures during the year which will have to fall outside the usual release windows. Suspect there may be a bit of club vs country tension flare up again, with everyone being in a perilous financial state there will be less mood for compromise.

The club Vs country flare up will probably be mitigated by Australia and NZ showing no interest in flying north for test matches. The Autumn test window will probably be used for finishing the Six Nations as that's a big earner and then possibly one or two other tests (PI Islands, SA, Japan depends who will travel).

There will be quite a few games in a short period but the players have probably had the biggest rest period of their professional careers which should mean that all the niggles many carry have been allowed to actually clear up.

Latest I heard was Manu to Japan in the short term and then reaching an agreement with a club to start summer 2021 so as to allow him to remain available for the Lions.

A little bit of talk on the Glasgow warriors Forum that Tigers are interested in Huw Jones again, presumably as a replacement for MT.

Any truth in that rumour?

He is still under contract for next season but then again he has never really settled at Glasgow. I was hoping a new coach might breath some of the old Huw back into him for us, we have never really seen him at his best.

Jones has been linked to Tigers about a dozen times now. It might fit in that Tigers have cash freed up by Manu leaving, Jones hasn't settled at Glasgow and the SRU might be happy to get some wages of their books with given financial issues with Covid. I haven't heard anything beyond speculation on forums about it though to be honest BigGee.

Now that a few forums (Tigers and Glasgow's offy both chatting about) have posts about it there will no doubt be an article about it from Ruck/RugbyPass/Fissler but that probably says more about how they source their 'journalism' than it would add any credence to the rumours! 

That said I'd take Jones at Tigers for a wage representative of his drop in form and injury issues. He's a very dangerous runner and an excellent finisher from close range which Tigers have lost with Manu leaving.

There have also been rumours that more Jaguares players will follow Lavanini and Montoya in signing at Tigers. Jeronimo de la Fuente being one linked but from what I can tell that link currently starts and ends from him following Tigers on twitter...

I guess we're being linked with a lot of Jags players because they are available, their agents are trying to find them deals and we need players. Given the foreign player rules I can't see it happening though. We already have three (I think) foreign players anymore would require a lot of juggling of resources particularly since we'd want Lavanini on the field the majority of the time. Unless of course the old dual citizenship comes into play.

Huw Jones seems like a re-hash of an old rumour but if Glasgow do need to cut costs then centre would be an obvious start point given the other options and Jones bad luck with injuries. He'd also be more likely to cancel his deal with Glasgow of there was one waiting at Tigers. One more year at Glasgow and then enter the market with a lot of unknowns or take a two or three year deal on a lower salary somewhere and have that job security?

If Jones ends up accepting a lower contract for security then Tigers will have really lucked out on Scottish centres. Scott is a terrific player as well who is rumoured to have signed for less than you'd expect for one of the form 12s in the Pro 14 due to the circumstances of Edinburgh offering him a deal, withdrawing it to make room for Jono Lance/Simon Hickey's next replacement.

Very true Carlos the Scott deal was good business for the club. By all accounts we got him for slightly less than Edinburgh were due to pay which is a real result. If McGinty gets Huw Jones over the line in a similar fashion he'll have earned his pay this summer.

So from the interview last night's interview with Geordie and McGinity;

- Brink won't play until season 2020/21 as he's still rehabbing. His lack of concern for his personal safety has been talked up as was his sheer size.

- Zach Henry is a real character and is being eyed up as an option at 15. Apparently the only player he knew before joining was Ellis.

- more players are signed up but won't be announced until they can get into the country. Further signings are being limited by various travel and visa issues. We have funds to spend though.

https://www.leicestertigers.com/news/club-statement-200713-taylor-gough

Simply horrid news about Taylor Gough. Not much that can be said except wishing him every luck in recovering as soon as possible.

Something like that really puts the rest of Tigers news in stark perspective.

Horrible news. I hope he can recover and enjoy some sense of normality as it doesn't sound good at the minute. I'm glad to hear the club intend to help look after him as best they can. They did the same with Matt Hampson and by the sounds of it his charity is already in touch with Taylor and his family. I can't imagine what he's been going through, poor bloke.

With the brilliant news of Taufua re-signing we now know where the squad stands.

Considering Brink and Aspland-Robinson are still rehabbing long term injuries we will be finishing this season with something like:

1.Genge 2.Youngs 3.Cole 4.Lavanini 5.Green 6.Liebenberg 7.Reffell 8.Taufua
9.Youngs 10.Ford 11.Nadolo 12.Scott 13.Taute 14.Olowofela 15.Steward

16.Mamukashvili 17.Gigena 18.Leatigaga 19.Wells 20.Lewis 21.White 22.Hardwick 23.Worth

1.??? 2.Kerr 3.Heyes 4.Henderson 5.Enever 6.Boladau? 7.Coghlan 8.Smith
9.JvP 10.Henry 11.Browning 12.McPhillips 13.??? 14.Potter 15.Simmons

16.Clare 17.Whitcombe 18.Dimen 19.Martin 20.Lavin 21.Law 22.Glynn 23.Kelly

With 3 games in 8 days at one point we will need short term signings to add squad depth:

- Prop is most vital. I really rate Whitcombe and Dimen seems talented but I wouldn't want either more than benching, even then only if both sides were rotating squads a fair bit.

- Then centre and back three. Tuilagi, Veainu, May, Holmes, Thompstone, Reid and Eastmond out. Scott, Nadolo and Potter currently in. Depth is needed in the short term at least, especially at centre.

We've got Williams in as well to help with the back three depth. 

At least one more centre and a prop really should be a priority. Six senior props really is the minimum.

Be interesting to see how we cope with the mid week fixture. London Irish mid week is on paper the most winnable game so we'll be looking to have fairly inexperienced benches for those three games to allow for some senior players to play the full 80 mid week.

Also Taufua staying 

True I'd forgotten about Williams. He looked really good for Nottingham this season alongside Spittle.

Yep Taufua staying is terrific news. All in all the we've kept the majority of the most important players from the contract disputes. There's a long way to go but I'm feeling more optimistic about the first XV going forward.

6.Liebenberg 7.Reffell 8.Taufua (20.Brink)

I genuinely believe that can be an excellent first choice back row.

I really like the Sale back row with Curryx2, du Preez twins and Jono Ross. Luatau, Earl and Hughes will be dangerous too. If Bath could get them fit (and keep them at Bath...) then Mercer, Underhill and Faletau are all fantastic players. I'd put that Tigers unit up there though.

I've not seen much of Brink in action but he looks like a big all rounder and I like the talk of him having no sense of personal safety, sounds a bit Moody esque and we've missed that a little. It certainly leaves us with a good backrow and I like Lewis as well, if he can bulk up more to offer a more powerful carry he'll be quite the blindside.

From what Jan McGinity said we may well get another backrow in before the start of next season. Hopefully another unit though Thom Smith inking a new contract indicates we clearly fancy him to develop.

What the chuffing hell is that new kit?

Well the new home kit looks like a modern twist on the classic design that completely misses the mark for me. I'd prefer us to go retro, see the the academy kit for a template.

The away kit looks like something from the sevens circuit. I actually quite like it though it's very marmite. They've gone well off the beaten track with that one. With away kits I don't mind that and some of the orange and red kits we've had in recent years hurt the eyes more.

Aye. Away one seems to be drawing all the flak. My eldest asked if it was an LGBT kit. Cannot say I will buy it, but do not hate it.

Really not a fan of the diagonal(ish) stripes on the home kit.

I'm not sure if it's a nod to the golden mile and the multi cultural nature of Leicester (the video clip launching it seem to show the Diwali celebrations and the Sikh drummers performing at Welford Road) or other thought was the blue representing the NHS and the coloured sleeves being for LGBT solidarity. As the club has been vocal in support for both (having offered free NHS employee parking during the pandemic).

"Our future players from our ‘Developing Player Programme’ will start their journey in the same black colours the club started its journey in back in 1880. As they rise through the ranks to the Academy, you will see them in our heritage colours from the 1970s and 80s before they finally develop into first-team players and earn their stripes… their new stripes."


From the new kit mini site. Quite like this, show the lads coming through the system the history of the club and at the same time make the first team shirt something they have to earn. I wonder if this will mean black shirts for the academy, retro green/red/white for the development/A league with the first team shirts then saved for league and cup fixtures.


Will they make the black and retro shirts available for sale? At a guess they'd probably sell well. Was always an error not to sell the previous academy shirts.


On the new kit it's also nice to see white shorts and black socks with the home shirt. Still not sold on stripe angle though.

Nothing wrong with the kit aside from having numbers on the back rather than letters.

Gooseberry wrote:Nothing wrong with the kit aside from having numbers on the back rather than letters.

We can't do anything about that. The academy do play with numbers on their shirts and first team have them over the emblem.

I'm not a huge fan of the home kit. The diagonal stripes remind me a bit of England's awful 2007 RWC kit with the ridiculous stripe across it.

I quite like the away kit though. If anything I'd like it even more if they'd gone for the colourful design across the whole shirt rather than the shoulders and sleeves. I like the colour they've gone with for most of the shirt as well as the design on it though. The socks look cracking.

Nadolo looks huge.

Well he is 6 foot 5 and north of 21 stone. Most second rows don't have those kind of stats. A player I'm very excited to see in Tigers colours. Got an epic offloading game up his sleeve as well.

Another unit we seem to have acquired over the summer is Loughborough University and Ireland under 20s centre Dan Kelly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/LeicesterTigers/status/1278587964021280773?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1278587964021280773%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2Ftwitter.min.html1278587964021280773

Looks like he could do with losing a bit though, probably 19 stone in his prime.

Nadolo has always been that sort of size. The height and weight is from Wiki so it doesn't mean it's his current size. We've got the S&C coach in that is credited with transforming the Boks physically for the world cup. He'll have Nadolo at the right weight. I doubt very much we'll see him under 20 stone as he's just built big.

Bit like Lavanini in the second row, he's not carry excess muscle bit he's in the 20 stone bracket as well. Mulipola was the same when he played for us, I met Mulipola and it was like meeting a human at a different scale he was in proportion not oversized like say meeting the Tuilagi's with the huge shoulders. I imagine Nadolo is similar to Mulipola and just naturally another level in size if we are 1 their scale is 1.2.

I went out boozing with Trevor Leota in Calgary. Hard to explain his scale bracket... very short but as wide as a bus.

Was Leota the one that when he was at Wasps they had to employ someone to stsy with him to monitor his food intake?

He regularly used to turn up several stones ovetweight!

According to the Tigers Rugby Show podcast, Manu is getting just £100-200k from Sale. Potentially leaves us with a massive obligation.

LondonTiger wrote:According to the Tigers Rugby Show podcast, Manu is getting just £100-200k from Sale. Potentially leaves us with a massive obligation.

Sounds like a load of guess work because that figure was £300k last week. Depends on what basis we terminated his contract and allowed him to go to Sale. Rather than it go to court I imagine we agreed a golden goodbye or similar. Neither party wants a public legal battle.

BigGee wrote:Was Leota the one that when he was at Wasps they had to employ someone to stsy with him to monitor his food intake?

He regularly used to turn up several stones ovetweight!

Alex Tuilagi used to do this, he always used to turn up late for ore season as well. Tigers hired a former military PT to work with Mulipola in order to keep him at his fighting weight of 21ish stone.

The Tigers pre season fat club always used to have some surprising and unsurprising names. The scrum half Sam Harrison was normally a surprise inclusion but the likes of Fraser Balmain and perennial fat boy Keiran Brookes less so.

Yeah that was Trevor. He still plays, still puts people in hospital with his hits.

mikey_dragon wrote:Yeah that was Trevor. He still plays, still puts people in hospital with his hits.

You'd probably want to make sure you had life insurance and your will was up to date before playing against him!

10:00 Luke Wallace - Solid no 7. Certainly no better than Guy Thompson, but younger.

10:30 Guy Porter - Outside back arriving on recommendation of our new attack coach. London born so EQP.

I'll take Wallace as a solid signing to cover the back row. He should be behind Reffell on merit and hopefully won't get in the way of Sam Lewis developing given that Lewis is a 6 who should rotate well with Liebenberg as they have similar skillsets/strengths.

Porter is a project but I always like a development signing in a position where they dev squad isn't stacked already. If he pays off then great but if not it will cost the club very little and give us depth for A-league games. Nice to see the new coaches having influence in signings. Also a good sign that players want to follow them across the globe.

Making the same whinging point like a broken record I accept, but given we've now signed a couple of development outside backs from elsewhere it surprises me even more that Ollie Smith didn't get a contract! Tigers have been better recently at keeping tabs on former academy players though. Manz, Chessum and Henderson at second row all moved on but have now returned.

Wonder how many announcements before Matias Moroni

LondonTiger wrote:Wonder how many announcements before Matias Moroni

I have no reason to think he will sign but if Rokoduguni is one of them I may wet my pants at work. Given it's a customer service role that's even worse than my usual incontinence as well.

Absolutely no reason to think he wont re-sign with Bath now the Beziers buyout has fallen through. Just idle thought that Tigers have some cash to spend in the back three with Veainu gone.

With Moroni being heavily linked it will be interesting to see whether it's as a winger or centre. He strong at both as an international so would be a very strong signing. Unusually for a player who covers wing and centre he is a good defensive leader from 13 which Tigers could do with.

Polota-Nau ---> Mamukashvili
Bateman ---> ???
Spencer ---> Enever
Kalamafoni ---> Brink
Reid ---> Henry
Eastmond ---> Scott
May ---> Nadolo
Viljeon ---> Potter
Thomas ---> Porter
Manu ---> ???
Holmes ---> ???
Thompstone ---> Williams?
Veainu ---> ???

Still some holes there but a few upgrades too.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

BigGee wrote:Was Leota the one that when he was at Wasps they had to employ someone to stsy with him to monitor his food intake?

He regularly used to turn up several stones ovetweight!

Alex Tuilagi used to do this, he always used to turn up late for ore season as well. Tigers hired a former military PT to work with Mulipola in order to keep him at his fighting weight of 21ish stone.

The Tigers pre season fat club always used to have some surprising and unsurprising names. The scrum half Sam Harrison was normally a surprise inclusion but the likes of Fraser Balmain and perennial fat boy Keiran Brookes less so.

Something something Thomas Waldrom "fittest man in the squad"

LondonTiger wrote:10:00 Luke Wallace - Solid no 7. Certainly no better than Guy Thompson, but younger.

10:30 Guy Porter - Outside back arriving on recommendation of our new attack coach. London born so EQP.

11:00 Kobus van Wyk - Outside back with Super Rugby experience with Stormers and Sharks, currently at Hurricanes. Another player I know zip about.