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'It was pretty competitive, I'll tell you': Leicester revive old school tactic of full-on, in-house trial match
By Liam Heagney
Tom Youngs has revealed an old school trial game tactic was used at Leicester last week in an attempt to toughen up the Tigers under new boss Steve Borthwick, who arrived last July at a club that has had successive eleventh place finishes in the Gallagher Premiership in recent seasons.
The story from the past used to be that some training games between Leicester A and B selections were far harder, no-nonsense ordeals than some of the matches they would have played when they were in their trophy-winning pomp and a dominant force in England and Europe.
They would regularly fight it out amongst each other in training games at Oval Park and a reprise of that galvanising tactic was deployed last week when Borthwick staged a full-on trial match to help fill the gap in the calendar caused by the cancellation of their two January European pool matches and their league game at Northampton.
Not since a January 3 win at home to Bath had Leicester been in action, hence the trial match in which Youngs admitted he was on the losing side but wouldn't elaborate on what way the teams were picked.
"It was last week, last Thursday. I'm a player, mate, not a coach. They determine who splits up on what team. I'm not the coach... three years ago, something like that," he said about when there was last a similar type in-house trial match. "Unfortunately, I wasn't (on the winning team), but it's fine, it's alright. It wasn't a thrashing.
"We train hard - that is what we do here. When I first came here (2006 debut) we trained hard. We may have gone away from that a bit but we have come back to it and trained hard... it was nice to have that game against each other and it was pretty competitive, I'll tell you. It was a good run-out, a good blow-out to be ready for Friday.
"You have got a choice when you turn up for training, you can either turn up and get through or you can turn up and actually push to be better. I feel we are getting a squad of players now who are turning up to get better and want to get better as an individual which then results in the team being better as well."
Sixth place Leicester, who are three wins from six so far in the league compared to one from six at this stage last term, next host Sale on Friday, by which time veteran skipper Youngs will have celebrated his 34th birthday at the club where his latest competition for the starting jersey is Argentina hooker Julian Montoya.
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John, McKenzie was 10 years ago and he only lasted 15 months until the disgustingly unfair affair that brought him down. I thought that if he didn't get another gig over Eddie V2 then he was done. I read that he had been approached but declined to put his name in the ring.
There are no potential Wallaby coaches outside of McKellar unless you have some inside info?
Go to commentsThe way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.
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