1
Wigglesworth names his first Leicester side as ex-Wasp named on bench
By Ian Cameron
Interim Leicester Tigers head coach Richard Wigglesworth has named his first side as head coach of Leicester Tigers following the exit of Steve Borthwick and Kevin Sinfield to the England national side.
Wigglesworth, who was appointed to the role on Monday, will coach his first game on Saturday afternoon as Leicester welcome Gloucester to Welford Road. He retired as a player with immediate effect.
The game, which is the team's return to Gallagher Premiership action after two weekends in Europe, will also be the inaugural Slater Cup. This trophy will be contested by Leicester and Gloucester in all Premiership meetings and is named after former player Ed Slater. The cup aims to raise awareness for Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
Hanro Liebenberg will captain Leicester in the game, with Dan Cole and Jack van Poortvliet serving as vice-captains.
There are six changes to the starting side that defeated Clermont at Mattioli Woods Welford Road last weekend.
These changes include James Whitcombe and Charlie Clare joining Cole in the front-row, Harry Wells partnering Ollie Chessum in the second-row, and Olly Cracknell replacing Jasper Wiese at No8.
In the only changes to the starting backline, van Poortvliet and Freddie Burns will be the starting half-backs.
Gabriel Oghre is named on the Leicester bench and is set to make his first appearance for the team at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Wigglesworth made more than 500 senior appearances - including a record 322 Premiership games and 33 Test matches for England - during a more than 20-year long professional career.
LEICESTER TIGERS TEAM:
15 Freddie Steward
14 Anthony Watson
13 Guy Porter
12 Dan Kelly
11 Harry Potter
10 Freddie Burns
9 Jack van Poortvliet (vc)
1 James Whitcombe
2 Charlie Clare
3 Dan Cole
4 Harry Wells
5 Ollie Chessum
6 Hanro Liebenberg (c)
7 Tommy Reffell
8 Olly Cracknell
REPLACEMENTS
16 Gabriel Oghre
17 Nephi Leatigaga
18 Joe Heyes
19 Calum Green
20 Sean Jansen
21 Ben Youngs
22 Charlie Atkinson
23 Chris Ashton
Trending on RugbyPass
2
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
3
Let's be real about these All Blacks
4
Why World Cup winner doesn’t blame All Black for leaving New Zealand
5
Latest Comments
No he's just limited in what he can do. Like Scott Robertson. And Eddie Jones.
Sometimes it doesn't work out so you have to go looking for another national coach who supports his country and believes in what he is doing. Like NZ replacing Ian Foster. And South Africa bringing Erasmus back in to over see Neinbar.
This is the real world. Not the fantasy oh you don't need passion for your country for international rugby. Ask a kiwi, or a south african or a frenchman.
Go to commentsDont complain too much or start jumping to conclusions.
Here in NZ commentators have been blabbing that our bottom pathway competition the NPC (provincial teams only like Taranaki, Wellington etc)is not fit for purpose ie supplying players to Super rugby level then they started blabbing that our Super Rugby comp (combined provincial unions making up, Crusaders, Hurricanes, etc) wasn't good enough without the South African teams and for the style SA and the northern powers play at test level.
Here is what I reckon, Our comps are good enough for how WE want to play rugby not how Ireland, SA, England etc play. Our comps are high tempo, more rucks, mauls, running plays, kicks in play, returns, in a game than most YES alot of repetition but that builds attacking skillsets and mindsets. I don't want to see world teams all play the same they all have their own identity and style as do England (we were scared with all this kind of talk when they came here) World powerhouse for a reason, losses this year have been by the tiniest of margins and could have gone either way in alot of games. Built around forward power and blitz defence they have got a great attack Wingers are chosen for their Xfactor now not can they chase up and unders all day. Stick to your guns its not far off
Go to comments