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Mike Ford handed revised role at Leicester following recruitment of new attack coach

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Mike Ford will take on a different role at Leicester next season following the recruitment of Rob Taylor as attack coach. The Tigers have struggled for points this season, their tally of 207 in 13 Gallagher Premiership outings just five points more scored than Worcester’s meagre 202. 

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With Steve Borthwick soon to arrive at Welford Road as head coach and Geordan Murphy moving up to become director of rugby, there is the mood for a big change at the club. Twenty-one players were confirmed departures on Monday at the end of the season and after announcing earlier on Wednesday the capture of Springboks World Cup-winning assistant Aled Walters as head of athletic performance, the Tigers have further stirred the pot with the recruitment of the unheralded Taylor.

Former Bath boss Ford – the father of England and Leicester out-half George – initially linked up with Murphy during last season’s scramble to avoid Premiership relegation. Following a review headed by Pat Howard, the ex-England and Ireland assistant then took on the attack coach brief for 2019/20. However, he will now switch to defence, the area of expertise where he initially made his name in rugby union after he moved across from rugby league to link up with Eddie O’Sullivan’s Ireland in 2002. 

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Re-elected World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont guests on the latest edition of The Rugby Pod

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Re-elected World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont guests on the latest edition of The Rugby Pod

Taylor, meanwhile, joins from Sydney University in Australia where he has won four Premiership titles in his four seasons at the Shute Shield club in both their colts and senior programmes. He was also the head coach for the NSW Country Eagles in Australia’s National Rugby Championship, but it was in his native New Zealand where he first made waves, coaching Auckland University before moving on to Mitre 10 Cup level with the Auckland province. 

Having grown up in Wellington, he moved to England to work with Ernst & Young and helped establish the John Macphail scholarship with the Scottish Rugby Union which has provided opportunities for young players and coaches from Scotland to play and coach abroad since 2005. Recipients of this grant have included John Barclay, Finn Russell and Chris Paterson.

“It was a big honour to get a call from Leicester Tigers,” said Taylor to the Leicester Tigers website. “Every rugby person knows who Leicester Tigers are and what they have achieved in their history. It’s a very exciting prospect with the roster Tigers have.

“It’s a privilege to get this chance to work with the likes of the players at Leicester already and the high-quality players coming in like Matt Scott and Nemani Nadolo. I’m really looking forward to it. However, I am also really passionate about the younger guys at the club and how they come through to the first team.”

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With the addition of Taylor and Walters alongside the incoming Borthwick, Murphy feels the balance is now right at Tigers. “It’s a new-look group for us next season,” he said. “With Mike Ford moving into defence where he has worked at the highest levels in the game, and the additions in Steve, Rob and Aled all adding their own unique skills and experience, we feel we are a much better and balanced group to take the club forward.”

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Bull Shark 3 minutes ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere also tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting g decent airtime. But pat of the above is just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section.


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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