World Cup players

[BigDan50]

We have 5 players in the England squad and various players in other countries squads, this begs the question of why we were so poor last season.
Is it the players fault and they are not trying or is it the coaches fault because they are not good enoug.
For me it's because the coaches are not good enough, especially Murphy who has shown that he cannot improve our skills even though he has been skills coach for a number of years.
I'm still convinced we need an experienced DOR or head coach to improve us for next season.

[JP14]

Don’t you think it could have also have been the poor squad depth that did not cope with the absence of said internationals? Which hopefully has been addressed this season.

[Goshengareth]

It's the right question but too simple an answer. How come it's Murphy not providing the right skill levels but they're good enough to be internationals? As the other person said the squad was lacking in depth. Where the coaches can be blamed is in an apparent failure to create a clear game plan and to get the team playing as a cohesive and motivated unit.

[sam16111986]

No defined coaching structure or plan so that for an entire season we were trying to play catch up. MOC deserved to be sacked but sacking him after a game left as many problems as fixes.

Where are our England internationals? None of them wearing numbers 4-8 which is where we were weak last season. Scrum was rock solid, lineout wobbly but improved, however, in the loose we were dreadful. Out has gone several locks and backrowers with good reason.

The Murphy skills coach thing annoys me greatly. He was the assistant backs coach looking after skills. Has TV not developed into a quality fullback looking increasingly good under the high ball and now with an underrated kicking game? Has George Worth not developed into a rock solid back up fullback? We're seeing development squad players improving and coming into the squad across the backline thanks to the changed academy set up and the basics Murphy helped put into place before last season. You don't think MOC was there giving over multiple hours a week for Murphy to work on individual skills with the whole first team squad do you?

[Cardiff Tig]

No defined coaching structure or plan so that for an entire season we were trying to play catch up. MOC deserved to be sacked but sacking him after a game left as many problems as fixes.

Where are our England internationals? None of them wearing numbers 4-8 which is where we were weak last season. Scrum was rock solid, lineout wobbly but improved, however, in the loose we were dreadful. Out has gone several locks and backrowers with good reason.

These two points are key.

Not having a preseason was a massive handicap for Murphy. Midweek coaching to develop a whole new game plan is almost non-existent during the season, there just isn't the time without completely destroying the players. I would bet a lot of money that we would have finished higher than 11th with MoC in charge but I agree he should have gone.

The breakdown and open forward play was our downfall last year. Look how good Thompson looked when he put in a couple of decent performances compared to the rest of the team in the majority of games!

[DingDong]

Its always a combination of factors which btw doesn't include the myth about the lack of pre-season (England manage to put a squad together in ridiculously short spaces of time with good success).

Poor recruitment and too big a squad compromised the continuity, all coupled with a coach who hadn't a scooby doo what to do, appointed by a board who make one major poor decision after another.

That's the past, and the future is this season, one for which i'm significantly more positive about than last year due to the retention of certain players, sacking of others, and far better recruitment than previous seasons. The coaches and board have no excuses now, mid table is a minimum for the first season and challenging the top four the season after.

[johnthegriff]

Last season is behind us, the reasons for it are many and we as fans know what we know and believe what we believe, we all have our own opinions. Forget what happened in the past we can't change it, look forward to the future only start to moan when we have something else to moan about.

[sam16111986]

Its always a combination of factors which btw doesn't include the myth about the lack of pre-season (England manage to put a squad together in ridiculously short spaces of time with good success).

The same England squad that have mid season training camps, summer tours designed to integrate the squad into a playing style and then get together pre 6N and AIs for further work together. The 6N rest weeks is more training together. They've been in camps for how many weeks so far this summer?

Pre season is not a myth. It's an essential element of success to any side expecting a long season.

[Chobbsy]

We have 5 players in the England squad and various players in other countries squads, this begs the question of why we were so poor last season.
Is it the players fault and they are not trying or is it the coaches fault because they are not good enoug.
For me it's because the coaches are not good enough, especially Murphy who has shown that he cannot improve our skills even though he has been skills coach for a number of years.
I'm still convinced we need an experienced DOR or head coach to improve us for next season.

5? I thought it was 6?

[BFG]

We have 5 players in the England squad and various players in other countries squads, this begs the question of why we were so poor last season.
Is it the players fault and they are not trying or is it the coaches fault because they are not good enoug.
For me it's because the coaches are not good enough, especially Murphy who has shown that he cannot improve our skills even though he has been skills coach for a number of years.
I'm still convinced we need an experienced DOR or head coach to improve us for next season.

What Leicester need is a decent level of continuity.
Coaches and players need time to adapt to eachother and mould into a team in my opinion.
We see a similar impact on performances and results with England, great squad but the chopping and changing can bring inconsistency.
I also think you overstate the international players as in my opinion they aren't that far ahead of most other players, in terms of ability it's very close and close enough for a very good player to look very bad in an unsettled environment.