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'A wise man, Richard Cockerill, once said to me an opinion without consequence is a terrible thing'

(Photo by Andy Kearns/CameraSport via Getty Images)

It’s just as well Geordan Murphy doesn’t do social media – some of the negativity about Leicester Tigers would only worsen the already largely sleepless nights he has been having trying to turn around the fortunes of an ailing club burdened by trophy-winning expectation.   

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No-one expected that the July arrival of Steve Borthwick as head coach, an appointment that allowed Murphy to move upstairs and become director of rugby, would be the silver bullet that would instantly cure all ills. But the stark reality of the quicksand Leicester continue to drown in was laid bare again on Wednesday night, not only by the record defeat at Wasps but by events elsewhere. 

If the original 35-point deduction given to Saracens last November had stood instead of it becoming the 105-point penalty which automatically relegated them in January, the Londoners’ losing bonus point at Sale would have sent Leicester bottom of the table and left them facing relegation with three games remaining. 

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RugbyPass brings you the opening episode of The Academy, the RugbyPass documentary series on the Leicester Tigers academy

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RugbyPass brings you the opening episode of The Academy, the RugbyPass documentary series on the Leicester Tigers academy

Imagine what the online reaction would have been if that were the case. As it was, the despair was noticeable enough midweek. “FFS. I give up with you lot! #speechless,” read one tweet. Another asked: “How the hell is Geordan Murphy still DoR? Think he lost the changing room last season.”

There was more. “Am I glad I am not watching this garbage. No doubt coaches will say we are pleased with the effort! Humiliating.”

And a final flavour of the negativity: “Leicester are f**ked. Steve Borthwick and Geordan Murphy aren’t turning this mob around. The crazy decision to fire Richard Cockerill continues to look as baffling now as it did then. They’re going absolutely nowhere.”

Curiously it was that very same Cockers whose name cropped up when Murphy was asked by RugbyPass if he had a message for Leicester fans given some of the caustic nature of the social media commentary surrounding them following their fifth defeat in six post-lockdown outings in the restarted 2019/20 Premiership. 

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“Look, I have said it all the way through Covid, it very much feels like a start of a journey for us and we have got a coaching team together now we feel is going to take us in the right direction and we feel that we are certainly growing and learning.

“We have got a journey, we have got a long way to go. Wednesday night was definitely a step back. I don’t look at social media because obviously it’s a very interesting thing. A wise man, Richard Cockerill, once said to me an opinion without consequence is a terrible thing. 

“Social media is what it is and in my experience where I have been in the last year, certainly we’ve been down bottom of the table and when fans were coming through the gates at Welford Road we have been hugely supported.

“When I go out and about in the community, what I would call true Leicester supporters have been hugely supportive and they appreciate where we are at, a learning experience with young players and giving them those opportunities to grow and develop. 

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“It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not a case of you have a silver bullet that you shoot and all of a sudden you’re winning Premierships and winning European Cups. We have a long, exciting journey but we’re pretty well supported. 

“When we have fans back at Welford Road you’ll see 20,000 people there screaming and shouting and supporting the team. That is why it is one of the best stadiums around and that is what we find. 

“I haven’t seen social media but like everything in life it’s probably about ten or 15 people. I’m having a guess, I haven’t been on it. If it’s more it’s more but it’s generally about 15 or 20 people, the naysayers and the doom-mongers and good luck to them.”

Thing is, as much as Murphy makes it policy not to dwell on anything  the keyboard warriors have to say, what can’t be ignored are the difficult statistics casting Leicester in a bad light. 

Borthwick’s six matches in charge have seen 201 points conceded, 30 tries conceded, 145 tackles missed – hardly the improvements longed for after Murphy welcomed in the ex-England assistant this summer following his own draining experience in the head coach hot-seat which featured just 11 wins in 34 league matches after he stepped up in September 2018 following the abrupt sacking of Matt O’Connor.   

It hasn’t helped that Leicester haven’t won away in the league since beating Newcastle in an April 2019 encounter at Kingston Park which decided that campaign’s relegation battle. With the safety net of Saracens’ off-field relegation not applicable when the new 2020/21 season kicks off, the clock is ticking on Tigers rediscovering some growl to ensure that this time next season they won’t be at the start line in the Championship after tumbling out of the top flight.

“I have really been enjoying the dynamic to be honest with you,” said Murphy, reflecting on the change in the Leicester management dynamic in recent months. “Having a head coach on board to really worry about the rugby and really focus on the nuts and bolts and the ABCs of what is happening on the field has been great. 

“The dimension in the coaches box has been good. We have got the attack coach, the defence coach feeding in those messages and it leaves me to have a feel on the overall view of the game. We have been working together well as a coaching group. Although the results haven’t been exactly what we would have liked I can see progress in every department.” 

Time will tell the fruits, if any, of that labour. In the meantime, shut-eye will continue to be a premium. “I don’t sleep a lot on the back of games anyway. We didn’t get back across until reasonably late (from Wasps) and then you’re watching some bits and pieces.

“Sleep is challenging for a coach, we finish late and start early. I didn’t sleep much after Wasps but I suppose that is where we find ourselves. We’re not in normal times in a six- or seven-day turnaround. We’re back at the coalface pretty quickly at the moment, as is everybody.”

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G
GrahamVF 36 minutes ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

"has SA actually EVER helped to develop another union to maturity like NZ has with Japan," yes - Argentina. You obviously don't know the history of Argentinian rugby. SA were touring there on long development tours in the 1950's

We continued the Junior Bok tours to the Argentine through to the early 70's

My coach at Grey High was Giepie Wentzel who toured Argentine as a fly half. He told me about how every Argentinian rugby club has pictures of Van Heerden and Danie Craven on prominent display. Yes we have developed a nation far more than NZ has done for Japan. And BTW Sa players were playing and coaching in Japan long before the Kiwis arrived. Fourie du Preez and many others were playing there 15 years ago.


"Isaac Van Heerden's reputation as an innovative coach had spread to Argentina, and he was invited to Buenos Aires to help the Pumas prepare for their first visit to South Africa in 1965.[1][2] Despite Argentina faring badly in this tour,[2] it was the start of a long and happy relationship between Van Heerden and the Pumas. Izak van Heerden took leave from his teaching post in Durban, relocated to Argentina, learnt fluent Spanish, and would revolutionise Argentine play in the late 1960s, laying the way open for great players such as Hugo Porta.[1][2] Van Heerden virtually invented the "tight loose" form of play, an area in which the Argentines would come to excel, and which would become a hallmark of their playing style. The Pumas repaid the initial debt, by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, and emerged as one of the better modern rugby nations, thanks largely to the talents of this Durban schoolmaster.[1]"


After the promise made by Junior Springbok manager JF Louw at the end of a 12-game tour to Argentina in 1959 – ‘I will do everything to ensure we invite you to tour our country’ – there were concerns about the strength of Argentinian rugby. South African Rugby Board president Danie Craven sent coach Izak van Heerden to help the Pumas prepare and they repaid the favour by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park.

152 Go to comments
J
JW 7 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

152 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Does the next Wallabies coach have to be an Australian? Does the next Wallabies coach have to be an Australian?
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