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New Tigers coach opens up on wild start to job with shock axing of boss

Michael Cheika, (L) the Leicester Tigers head coach talks to Peter Hewat, the Leicester Tigers backs coach during the Leicester Tigers training session held at Oadby Oval on August 08, 2024 in Leicester, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Given that Leicester Tigers have not yet played a match while Peter Hewat has served as their attack coach, it has been a strange start to life at Welford Road for the Australian.

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The former London Irish fullback was recruited in June in a move that saw him reunite with his former Brumbies boss Dan McKellar. Just over a week later McKellar was sacked. 

Hewat’s compatriot Michael Cheika was named head coach soon after, completing what was surely a tumultuous start to life with the Tigers.

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Despite this change, Hewat said that he and his colleagues remain “laser-focused” when speaking to the club recently. 

“Look there’s no secrets, there was a big change with Michael coming in, but my focus was and is on being part of achieving something special here with this group, and from top to bottom, I could see that the whole organisation is laser-focused on doing the same,” he said.

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Exeter Chiefs
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Leicester
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“That’s the kind of environment any coach would want to be part of.”

Leicester get their Gallagher Premiership season underway against the Exeter Chiefs on September 21, but have preseason fixtures against Nottingham and the Scarlets, providing this new-fangled coaching team a chance to implement their ideas.

While Hewat therefore expects the Tigers to improve as the season progresses as the coaching team gel with the players and amongst themselves, there are nevertheless some non-negotiables.

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“Michael and I have spent a lot of time with the players, had open discussions where we feel we need to go to get better in our attack and how we get there,” he added. “We’ve looked to break things down to individual components to then build things up and week by week, we’re seeing the improvements we want to see.

“Like anything on a rugby field, it’s about the individual owning their role in the collective effort and that takes time. Will we grow and develop during the season? Absolutely we will but there’s also an element of doing the basics, being physical and doing what it takes to get the job done, especially early on.”

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Hellhound 33 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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