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Moody: Leicester Tigers might need to be relegated

Lewis Moody

Former Leicester Tigers’ legend Lewis Moody doesn’t think his former club has hit rock bottom, despite another difficult start to the season.

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Speaking to the Will Greenwood podcast on Sky Sports, Moody suggested that relegation might even be what Tigers need to get the club back on track.

Greenwood won 223 caps for the midland’s club between 1996 and 2010 and thinks that relegation to the RFU Championship could be the spark that forces changes at the club.

“I’ve said this for quite a while now, I honestly believe they have to get to rock bottom to stop papering over the cracks,” Moody said.

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“They haven’t got to rock bottom yet – they’re near the bottom of the table, but it may be the fact relegation is that rock bottom which galvanises them to proper change.

“I want to support Leicester and I would always offer them a supportive shoulder because those guys on the ground are doing everything they can to turn it around.

Lewis Moody Leicester Tigers
Lewis Moody believes his old club might need relegation
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“I would hate to see them go down.”

Leicester currently sit second from bottom with just one Gallagher Premiership win from five attempts. The Geordan Murphy coached side are now just 22 points ahead of Saracens, who were deducted 35 points at the start of the season due to salary cap breaches.

“I was delighted when they put Geordan in there,” Moody said. “He’s a good mate of mine and he’s got an unbelievable rugby brain.

“He’s in a very difficult situation and there’s no doubt about that, but having spoken to him and seen what the club are trying to do, they’re very supportive of their own.

“I think Geordan will be given the time and the opportunity, but it’s whether he’s got the time to make the changes and bring in the individuals he needs to do to put the club to get back to where they need to be.”

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J
JW 24 minutes ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).

Number Of Clubs:

1526

Registered+Unregistered Players:

651146

Number of Referees:

3460

Pre-teen Male Players:

320842

Pre-teen Female Player:

4522

Teen Male Player:

199213

Teen Female Player:

4906

Senior Male Player:

113174

Senior Female Player:

8489

Total Male Player:

633229

Total Female Player:

17917


So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.

The total number of clubs remains consistent, with a marginal increase of 1% from 1,161 to 1,167. 8.1.

A comparative analysis of verified data for 2022 and 2023 highlights a marginal decline of 1% in the number of female players, declining from 6,801 to 6,723. Additionally, the total number of players demonstrates an 8% decrease, dropping from 96,172 to 88,828.

So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).


https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.


The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.


In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.

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