Leicester
Last year: 4th (finalist)
Title odds: 7/2
Opening fixture: away v Gloucester, Sunday 7th September
After almost rescuing a poor season with a title, Leicester are hoping for better things this term, as Martin Corry and Richard Cockerill explain…
How’s Leicester?
MC: Cold, wet, pretty much the same as always really, same ol’, same ol! No, it’s pretty good really, we’ve got a new head coach, new backs coach. Pre-season couldn’t have gone any better so we’re just looking forward to getting going.
A lot of new things brought in by the new boss?
MC: Yeah, a lot of new techniques, but also reaffirming old ones. Having people like Richard still at the club keeps the balance between old and new. We take what was good from the old and mix it with what’s good from the new…
Was change needed at Leicester?
MC: I think change is always needed, as soon as you tread water that’s when you get left behind. That’s where the game’s changed quite markedly with the new laws and it’s important to be proactive.
Why do you think Marcelo didn’t work out?
RC: That was last season and we’re not going to talk about it.
How’s Heyneke getting on?
RC: Heyneke’s got a very clear direction of how he wants us to work, how he wants us to play, what conditioning he wants done, what he wants from the coaches, what he expects from the players… He’s very much a good leader on and off the field. Everybody’s in no doubt about what’s expected from them, which makes for a very good start. One good thing is that he’s coming without a huge about knowledge of northern hemisphere rugby, so a lot of people are starting with a clean slate, he has no preconceptions…
MC: Heyneke’s has come from a lot of success in South Africa and he’s come in and knows where he wants to go. He’s open to ideas, but it is a case of my way of the highway. The players are 100% behind him, he knows where he wants to go and we want to go there with him. He wants to bring success to Welford Road and the players want that too.
Is it a case of Heyneke fitting in to the Leicester way?
RC: To be fair, he’s come in with core values that are very much in line with that of the clubs and he’s sat back and just seen how we operate. He’s looked at what cultural differences there are between South African and Anglo-Saxon mentality and tried to get a blend of both. In the last month he’s started to stamp his authority on areas he feels he should get more involved in, but he’s not come and cleared the table and start again. The Blue Bulls and Tigers are pretty much in line with each other from the mentality side of things, so from that point it’s been a good choice from the directors.
Does it help to have a coach who’s been playing with the new laws?
MC: The way the game’s going, it’s heading more towards Super 14 brand of play, so to get that kind of influence will certainly help. But even if the new laws weren’t coming in to play, the coach would still have been a very good acquisition.
Do you think the laws will be beneficial to the game?
MC: Initially I would have said I was firmly against it. After playing them, the majority don’t make a slight alteration to the game. A couple will change the way you play, but the key thing now will be the referees and how they interpret the new laws over the first few weeks of the season.
Should they have brought them in? No. The way we were playing in the Guinness Premiership and the Heineken Cup was a great brand of rugby. I know there were problems elsewhere but why change what we’ve got? But we’ve spent all of our summer devising a gameplan and developing skills that allow us to make best use of the new laws. To be honest now I’ve accepted them, played under them, I’d just to see the positives of them…
How are the new boys settling in?
RC: Well, we’ve only got four new guys. Hougaard, Bonorino, Newby – who arrives in October – and we’ve got a good balance a ten now because we’ve got a guy like Toby [Flood] who’s a very good running fly-half, who plays very much on the gainline. Then we’ve got Hougaard who’s a very good kicking ten and, of course, Flood can play at 12 too. Newby will come into the backrow and brings some good leadership and fresh ideas… And Bonorino has played Test rugby in the front row for Argentina. We did move a lot of players on because we had a big squad from last year for the World Cup, but disruption to the squad has been minimal. It’s compact, slighter smaller than normal, so in a way it’s been easier to get the new ideas across.
What sort of shape are you looking in?
RC: We’re going to be fitter, stronger, better organised. If that brings us trophies, then great, but we’re not going to talk about what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it with you. We’re going to fight on all fronts because you don’t go into any games thinking ‘oh, we don’t really want to win this game’. We’d like to be in the mix for all three trophies, but there’s a lot of graft to be done. We’ll be in a good position if we have a bit of luck manage to keep everyone fit – but that comes with the toss of a coin…
TRANSFERS
In
Julien Dupoy (Biarritz), Toby Flood (Newcastle Falcons), Derick Hougaard (Blue Bulls), Ben Woods (Newcastle Falcons), Craig Newby (Otago Highlanders), Santiago Bonorino (Capitolina)
Out
Luke Abraham (Sale Sharks), Paul Burke (retired), Matt Cornwell (Exeter Chiefs), Ollie Dodge (Bedford Blues), Gregor Gillanders (Bedford Blues), Andy Goode (Brive), James Hamilton (Edinburgh), Ian Humphreys (Ulster), Christophe Laussucq (retired), Alex Moreno (Calvisano), Frank Murphy (Connacht), Ollie Smith (Montpelier), David Young (Gloucester)
Martin Corry image by Ros Holder