LEICESTER TIGERS 2021/22 SQUAD/TRANSFERS/CONTRACTS: Aled Walters and the Philosopher's Stone

[TigerFeetSteve]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... -spending/

Ealing have been linked with signing Lancaster

[RagingBull]

Would make sense with Walsh and Meredith

Although don’t really see those signings outside of Holmes as that impressive recruitment

[mightymouse]

When I first saw Simmons and White I thought Simmons was the better player .. and then he got injured.. JVP came through behind them and White disappeared.. fast forward a couple of years White has had a great season for London Irish and made a very good fist of being a back up to Lions scrum half Ali Price playing for Scotland.
Therefore with Simmons now having had some development in the championship and hopefully matured a bit, he may start showing some of that early promise and be a very handy 3/4 choice scrum half and with his ability to play elsewhere I think in may be a very shrewd and relatively inexpensive move .. I for one am pleased to see his return and will watch him on the field with keen interest hopefully in the pre season games.

[MCC1964]

Who was the young lad that came on to replace JvP in the PRC game against Irish? I thought he was quite nippy and dynamic. The one concern I have for Tigers having watched them is that compared to other teams (and it's only a minor concern) is that they're not as 'dynamic' in attack as a lot of other teams. I don't just mean out and out pace, which has also been a problem (Watson will help improve that but everyone else will need to keep up!), but we seem to be a bit 'plod, plod, bosh'. I just feel we need to speed up a little to help create space rather than try to smash out way through all the time. But like I said, it's only a minor concern. Very pleased with all the announcements yesterday.

[RagingBull]

Sam Edwards?

[Pellsey]

When I first saw Simmons and White I thought Simmons was the better player .. and then he got injured.. JVP came through behind them and White disappeared.. fast forward a couple of years White has had a great season for London Irish and made a very good fist of being a back up to Lions scrum half Ali Price playing for Scotland.
Therefore with Simmons now having had some development in the championship and hopefully matured a bit, he may start showing some of that early promise and be a very handy 3/4 choice scrum half and with his ability to play elsewhere I think in may be a very shrewd and relatively inexpensive move .. I for one am pleased to see his return and will watch him on the field with keen interest hopefully in the pre season games.

I completely agree. Although I was surprised to see Simmons being re-signed, I am happy with it. I always rated him, especially as a scrum half, and was upset when he got injured "in his prime" I hope he develops as well as I thought he would.

He is a versatile player in the Austin Healy mould. Whether he will ever be as good as Austin was... not sure. At least he won't have Austin's mouth!

[Leicestertinytiger]

When I first saw Simmons and White I thought Simmons was the better player .. and then he got injured.. JVP came through behind them and White disappeared.. fast forward a couple of years White has had a great season for London Irish and made a very good fist of being a back up to Lions scrum half Ali Price playing for Scotland.
Therefore with Simmons now having had some development in the championship and hopefully matured a bit, he may start showing some of that early promise and be a very handy 3/4 choice scrum half and with his ability to play elsewhere I think in may be a very shrewd and relatively inexpensive move .. I for one am pleased to see his return and will watch him on the field with keen interest hopefully in the pre season games.

I completely agree. Although I was surprised to see Simmons being re-signed, I am happy with it. I always rated him, especially as a scrum half, and was upset when he got injured "in his prime" I hope he develops as well as I thought he would.

He is a versatile player in the Austin Healy mould. Whether he will ever be as good as Austin was... not sure. At least he won't have Austin's mouth!

Agreed, always used to rate Simmons above White. However, in his last few games for Tigers White was really good, his kicking had improved immeasurably. Not surprised he’s now smashing it with LI and Scotland.

Simmons though is probably perfect 3/4th choice and will get plenty of minutes in PRC next season. Edwards has got backs of potential too.

Hopefully some more announcements will be made later today.

[TigerFeetSteve]

When I first saw Simmons and White I thought Simmons was the better player .. and then he got injured.. JVP came through behind them and White disappeared.. fast forward a couple of years White has had a great season for London Irish and made a very good fist of being a back up to Lions scrum half Ali Price playing for Scotland.
Therefore with Simmons now having had some development in the championship and hopefully matured a bit, he may start showing some of that early promise and be a very handy 3/4 choice scrum half and with his ability to play elsewhere I think in may be a very shrewd and relatively inexpensive move .. I for one am pleased to see his return and will watch him on the field with keen interest hopefully in the pre season games.

I completely agree. Although I was surprised to see Simmons being re-signed, I am happy with it. I always rated him, especially as a scrum half, and was upset when he got injured "in his prime" I hope he develops as well as I thought he would.

He is a versatile player in the Austin Healy mould. Whether he will ever be as good as Austin was... not sure. At least he won't have Austin's mouth!

Agreed, always used to rate Simmons above White. However, in his last few games for Tigers White was really good, his kicking had improved immeasurably. Not surprised he’s now smashing it with LI and Scotland.

Simmons though is probably perfect 3/4th choice and will get plenty of minutes in PRC next season. Edwards has got backs of potential too.

Worth pointing out in his last season with us White talked about how Wigglesworth had helped his game develop, hopefully the same can happen with Simmons.

[Rugbygramps]

When I first saw Simmons and White I thought Simmons was the better player .. and then he got injured.. JVP came through behind them and White disappeared.. fast forward a couple of years White has had a great season for London Irish and made a very good fist of being a back up to Lions scrum half Ali Price playing for Scotland.
Therefore with Simmons now having had some development in the championship and hopefully matured a bit, he may start showing some of that early promise and be a very handy 3/4 choice scrum half and with his ability to play elsewhere I think in may be a very shrewd and relatively inexpensive move .. I for one am pleased to see his return and will watch him on the field with keen interest hopefully in the pre season games.

I completely agree. Although I was surprised to see Simmons being re-signed, I am happy with it. I always rated him, especially as a scrum half, and was upset when he got injured "in his prime" I hope he develops as well as I thought he would.

He is a versatile player in the Austin Healy mould. Whether he will ever be as good as Austin was... not sure. At least he won't have Austin's mouth!

Agreed, always used to rate Simmons above White. However, in his last few games for Tigers White was really good, his kicking had improved immeasurably. Not surprised he’s now smashing it with LI and Scotland.

Simmons though is probably perfect 3/4th choice and will get plenty of minutes in PRC next season. Edwards has got backs of potential too.

Hopefully some more announcements will be made later today.

The other thing about Simmons is that we will potentially be without Steward Watson and Youngs at the same time. One player can cover 3 positions

[johnthegriff]

I am delighted by the Watson signing but i think he will need game time before we see the best of him so I would not expect him to be involved in Autumn Internationals although possibly in the training squads.
Simmons I really rated and welcome him returning as a utility back but I expect him not to be satisfied with that and be pushing for a starting or at least a regular bench position.
Cracknell looked pretty decent when playing against us as did Cockanasigna who certainly had some wheels and an eye for a gap.
Cronin, happy with, will need to be good to get preference over Whitcombe, Gopperth we know what we are getting as a player and ab excellent guy for Dan Kelly to learn from, maybe also as a kicking coach, Dan took the kick when Ford got injured at Exeter a role I understand he filled in age grade rugby, could be a useful extra skill to develop, Steward could benefit as well for possible long range shots.
Heck, I am getting excited about next season before this one is done.

[Chobbsy]

I am delighted by the Watson signing but i think he will need game time before we see the best of him so I would not expect him to be involved in Autumn Internationals although possibly in the training squads.
Simmons I really rated and welcome him returning as a utility back but I expect him not to be satisfied with that and be pushing for a starting or at least a regular bench position.
Cracknell looked pretty decent when playing against us as did Cockanasigna who certainly had some wheels and an eye for a gap.
Cronin, happy with, will need to be good to get preference over Whitcombe, Gopperth we know what we are getting as a player and ab excellent guy for Dan Kelly to learn from, maybe also as a kicking coach, Dan took the kick when Ford got injured at Exeter a role I understand he filled in age grade rugby, could be a useful extra skill to develop, Steward could benefit as well for possible long range shots.
Heck, I am getting excited about next season before this one is done.

He may well make the summer touring side

[Scott1]

Squads shaping up beautifully! The only position that worries me is LH,Cronin is very good and Whitcombe is coming along great but they are no Genge,he’s been outstanding lately and proved during the 6N that he’s world class. Took arguably the worlds best TH apart and had 2 fantastic performances v Wales and Ireland ,although both differed slightly with one in the loose and one at set piece,but when he puts it all together consistently and keeps improving there’s a chance he could become the worlds premier LH. Whitcombes the one to watch now!

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

What a difference a good season makes

These kind of signings2 years ago would’ve gotten
Gopperth - 39 year old way past it now
Cracknell - can’t nail down a starter shirt for Irish
Cronin - couldn’t make it with Ireland
Cokanasiga- alright but not getting any game time with Irish
Watson - hobbling winger

Now it’s all how are Tigers affording these players

Love it lol

You can still make the argument about the signings, they are valid points on all of them.
All of those signings could go either way if we are honest.

I wonder if Hegerty might be a potential leaver.

Moroni would be as big a loss as Genge potentially, he is a proper old school 13, not many of them around in the game these days let alone at Tigers, the kind of 13 Cusick could aim for.

On semi-related issues is Bondi still at the club?

[markharbtiger]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... -spending/

Ealing have been linked with signing Lancaster

Would not be a surprise. Is Freddie Burns staying? No idea how long he signed for - anyone?

[Chobbsy]

Squads shaping up beautifully! The only position that worries me is LH,Cronin is very good and Whitcombe is coming along great but they are no Genge,he’s been outstanding lately and proved during the 6N that he’s world class. Took arguably the worlds best TH apart and had 2 fantastic performances v Wales and Ireland ,although both differed slightly with one in the loose and one at set piece,but when he puts it all together consistently and keeps improving there’s a chance he could become the worlds premier LH. Whitcombes the one to watch now!

I still think we need at least 1 enforcer in the second row, I think this was shown in the Leinster match