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Why Leicester have eyes on 'back five of the scrum' Irish approach

(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Steve Borthwick has identified one particular reason why Gallagher Premiership leaders Leicester should be concerned when they put their ten-game unbeaten run at the start of the 2021/22 league and European campaign on the line when they host Irish province Connacht next Sunday at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.  

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Leicester defeated Connacht 48-32 last April in a Challenge Cup round of 16 encounter at home but despite the Tigers’ considerable improvements since then, their coach has outlined why they can’t take anything for granted in a season that began with nine straight league wins followed by last Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup success away to Bordeaux. 

“I have known Andy Friend for a few years now,” explained Borthwick as his Tigers prepare to welcome Connacht to Leicester for the second time in eight months. “He is a really experienced coach who has seen a lot and what he has built there, they put away Stade Francais pretty well. 

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Pablo Matera checks in at the Crusaders

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Pablo Matera checks in at the Crusaders

“You see they have got a tough, hard-working forward pack and what you see with the Irish packs is the back five of the scrum are usually really athletic. They move well, carry well, jackal well. 

“Then you have got a ten, Jack Carty, who manages his team around the pitch beautifully, Bundee Aki, who is back in the centre, has got real power and then they have signed well, (Mack) Hansen has played really well for them in the back three so you have got a team there that fights and also plays smart rugby, so it is going to a formidable challenge.”

One area of Leicester’s own play that Borthwick is looking for an improvement is how they handle the latter stages of the match against Connacht following two close shaves in recent weeks versus Harlequins and Bordeaux. “I look at the endings of the last two games and I don’t think we have handled them particularly well,” he reckoned. 

“If you look at the game on Saturday the last 20 in general we handled much better than we did against Harlequins the week before but we still gave the opposition an opportunity (to win) as we did the week before. Managing and closing out the game is something we are looking at because ultimately it is not a position Leicester Tigers have been in an awful lot, to be honest. 

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“It is something you actually have to manage and experience. Aled Walters has got the team fit, he is an incredible coach and has conditioned the team well. It’s not quite where we want us to be but it is getting us there, so come the later part of games we can compete.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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