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Leicester Tigers quartet re-commit to club

Ellis Genge

Leicester Tigers have kicked off the New Year with the announcement of new contracts for George Ford, Ellis Genge, George Worth and Sam Aspland-Robinson.

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Ford, who has scored 810 points in 88 appearances for the club, made his debut for Tigers as a 16-year-old before winning a Premiership with Leicester in 2013.

Following a four year stint at Bath Rugby, Ford returned to Leicester ahead of the 2017/18 season and has since gone on to establish himself as one of the world’s premier players.

Speaking about his new contract, Ford said: “I want to be successful, part of a team that is winning trophies … and in an environment that is doing that.”

“I love this club … it’s not anywhere near where people want it to be.

“If I didn’t believe we could make improvements, it might have been a different story, but I genuinely believe that.

“I believe in sticking it out through tough times and coming out at the other end.”

Ford’s club and international team-mate Genge, who initially joined Tigers during the 2015/16 season on loan from Bristol before making the move permanent the following season, recently made his 50th starting appearance for the club.

When asked about his decision to remain in Leicester, despite offers to return home to Bristol and outside of the United Kingdom, Genge said: “Leicester is the club for me going forward and I am genuinely over the moon to be re-signing.”

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“The only way is up … it will be positive, I wouldn’t have signed if I didn’t believe that.”

Worth, who made his 50th appearance for Tigers in the club’s recent Premiership appearance at Twickenham, joined the club as a 16-year-old as part of the Academy programme.

A versatile, utility-back, Worth has featured in almost every back-line position for Tigers since making his debut in the 2015/16 season and says the “stability” implemented at the club in recent months was a major factor in his decision to remain in Leicester.

“We are not where we want to be as a club, and to leave now, would be a failure on my part,” said Worth.

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“A lot has gone on at the club over the past few years and now, with the stability that has taken place in coaches and the playing group, it seems to me that with that stability, I have a responsibility to be a part of trying to put things right.”

Former England Under-20s representative, Aspland-Robinson, who is currently side-lined with a leg injury, says the “vote of confidence” from the club means a lot to the 22-year-old.

“It’s really nice to get that vote of confidence,” said Aspland-Robinson.

“When I got injured, I went straight to Geordan and asked if he wanted to keep me, which he said he did.

“To get that certainty from the coach is great, it was a nice Christmas present for me and means a lot.”

Speaking about the recommitment of the quartet, Tigers head coach Geordan Murphy added: Retention and recruitment is a strange, strange thing … you’re always negotiating and chipping away at it.”

“We are in ongoing negotiations with current players, always, and continuing to work towards building and strengthening our squad for the future.”

Murphy also added that, with the New Year beginning, Tigers would begin looking “outside of the environment” for additions to the club.

“Now, with the New Year beginning, we’ll begin looking outside of the environment as well to guys who we can bring in to the environment and add to our group and what we’re trying to build in Leicester,” said Murphy.

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fl 2 hours ago
‘Props are awesome…so why don’t they win prizes?’

“The reason most props don’t last the whole game is that they expend proportionally more effort than players outside the front row. Should they be penalised for that?”

No, they don’t last the whole game because they are less fit than players outside the front row. I’d be interested to know if you’d apply this logic to other positions; do PSDT and Itoje regularly last longer than other players in their positions because they put in less effort?

None of this is about “penalising” props, its about being realistic about their impact on a game.


“While scrums are a small part of the game in terms of time spent in them, they have disproportionate impact. Dominant scrums win games; feeble ones lose them.”

Strength at the breakdown wins games. Good kicking wins games. Good handling wins games. Strong defence wins games. Good lineouts win games. Ultimately, I think that of all these things, the scrum is probably the least important, because it demonstrably doesn’t correlate very well with winning games. I don’t think Rugbypass will allow me to link articles, but if you google “HG Rugby Crowning the Best Scrum in Club Rugby” you’ll get a pretty convincing analysis that ranks Toulouse and Bordeaux outside of the 10 best club sides in the scrum - and ranks Leinster outside of the top 30.


“Or there’s Joe Marler’s epic performance in the Bristol v Quins 2021 Premiership Semi-Final, in which he finally left the pitch 15 minutes into extra time having signed off with a try saving tackle.”

Yeah - that’s a good example actually, but it kind of disproves your point. Marler played 95 minutes, which is unheard of for a prop.


“Maybe we need a dedicated Hall of Fame with entry only for props, and voted for only by props.”

Well we have the World Rugby XV of the year. Its only been going for a few years, but in time it’ll be a pretty good record of who are perceived as best props - although the lack of interest most people have in scrums means that perception of who the best props are doesn’t always match reality (e.g. Tadgh Furlong was great in 2018 - but was he really the best tighthead in the world in 2021, 2022, & 2023?).

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