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Kevin Sinfield's impact at Leicester: 'What really stands out...'
By Chris Jones
Leicester boss Steve Borthwick has paid tribute to the immediate impact former rugby league great Kevin Sinfield has made as defence coach at the Gallagher Premiership leaders, who next tackle London Irish on Saturday.
Leeds Rhinos legend Sinfield ran the London marathon on Sunday to raise money for the MND Association after his friend and former teammate Rob Burrow was diagnosed with the disease in December 2019. It was the latest running challenge Sinfield set himself, having previously run seven marathons in as many days, raising £2.2million in the same cause.
Leicester turned to Sinfield to boost their defensive play but the former Britain star is also playing a key role in mentoring and motivating the Tigers squad who remained unbeaten thanks to a last-gasp penalty try to beat Saracens 13-12 at the weekend.
Borthwick said: “In terms of the defensive systems there isn’t that much difference but what Kevin brings to the coaching side are man-management and leadership. He has added a lot from the defensive point of view but the way he is managing and interacting with players is superb.
“The players want to play for him and he adds all kinds of things working with the kickers, the front row forwards and he also has the ability with his skill set to work with our distributors in the attack. The defence and attack coaches are working hand in hand.
“What really stands out for me with Kevin is the way he manages people. You do your research and I spoke to people about Kevin and then you see him day-to-day and what he adds to the group and those small interactions - I can only imagine what he was like as the incredible captain he was, leading his team to so many great victories.”
Despite guiding Leicester to the top of the table, Borthwick knows how close Tigers came to losing to Saracens and as he heads to the Brentford Community Stadium he added: “I'm under no illusions about how Saracens dominated large periods of the game but the character of the players is excellent and now we have to be a better team.”
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Latest Comments
Smith is playing a different game with the rest of the backs struggling to understand. That's the problem with so called playmakers, if nobody gets what they're doing then it often just leads to a turnover. It gets worse when Borthwick changes one of them, which is why they don't score points at the end. Sometimes having a brilliant playmaker can be problematic if a team cannot be built around them. Once again Borthwick seems lacking in either coaching or selection. I can't help but think it's the latter coupled with pressure to select the big name players.
Lastly, his forward replacements are poor and exposed either lack of depth or selection pressure. Cole hemorrhages scrum penalties whenever he comes on, opponents take advantage of the England scrum and close out the game. Is that the best England can offer?
Go to commentsWhich Australian coaches would be acceptable to coach the All Blacks ?
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