LEICESTER TIGERS 2021/22 SQUAD/TRANSFERS/CONTRACTS: Lord of the Mauls

[LekkerTigers]

Anyone know of any EQ props in super rugby/URC/Top14?

[manxleigh]

Average UK salary is £26k. I think players need to get a grip. Argument about career only lasting 10-12 years is false, as most go onto something else via connections they have made while playing. The game doesn’t owe them a lifetimes income in 10 years.

[sam16111986]

Average UK salary is £26k. I think players need to get a grip. Argument about career only lasting 10-12 years is false, as most go onto something else via connections they have made while playing. The game doesn’t owe them a lifetimes income in 10 years.

Most people maximise their earnings when they can. Everybody wants to be as comfortable as they can be and provide as best they can for their families. You tell someone earning £26k they can earn £30k and watch them move.

[Cardiff Tig]

Average UK salary is £26k. I think players need to get a grip. Argument about career only lasting 10-12 years is false, as most go onto something else via connections they have made while playing. The game doesn’t owe them a lifetimes income in 10 years.

It's not just the short career span. It's the high risk nature of the job with potential for life changing injury any game, plus the long term health effects that most players have.

Plus, very few players make a well-paid career out of rugby afterwards.

[manxleigh]

Average UK salary is £26k. I think players need to get a grip. Argument about career only lasting 10-12 years is false, as most go onto something else via connections they have made while playing. The game doesn’t owe them a lifetimes income in 10 years.

It's not just the short career span. It's the high risk nature of the job with potential for life changing injury any game, plus the long term health effects that most players have.

Plus, very few players make a well-paid career out of rugby afterwards.

How many rugby players suffer life changing injuries vs those working on building sites and in other high risk environments? If a player earns £400k per year, that is worth over x15 times the average. They can then go on and do an average paid job. Compare it to a junior doctor etc. People make a choice and you hope players play because they love the game, not what they can earn by doing it.

[johnthegriff]

As many have said a lot of players have departed under Borthwick just as several did under Murphy, the main reason being that most were inherited from the O'Connor days and they were just not good enough. Murphy inherited a weak set of forwards and a superb back line that was never on even one occasion available to him and he never had the luxury of a first team squad pre- season. Borthwick had plenty of time to assess his squad and the luxury of being able to select weaker teams in the knowledge that the match result was secondary to learning about individuals.
Possibly salary negotiations caused by the pandemic upset a few but they were necessary for the survival of our club, and as our action was mirrored by most other Premiership teams probably necessary fr the survival of our sport as a professional club based game. Ford and Genge have given family reasons for their move, I see no cause to doubt them, in the past aplayer with such thoughts may have been persuaded to think again by an increased offer, now with the reduction of the cap that is not possible without losing one of two players from the squad depth.

[Scott1]

As many have said a lot of players have departed under Borthwick just as several did under Murphy, the main reason being that most were inherited from the O'Connor days and they were just not good enough. Murphy inherited a weak set of forwards and a superb back line that was never on even one occasion available to him and he never had the luxury of a first team squad pre- season. Borthwick had plenty of time to assess his squad and the luxury of being able to select weaker teams in the knowledge that the match result was secondary to learning about individuals.
Possibly salary negotiations caused by the pandemic upset a few but they were necessary for the survival of our club, and as our action was mirrored by most other Premiership teams probably necessary fr the survival of our sport as a professional club based game. Ford and Genge have given family reasons for their move, I see no cause to doubt them, in the past aplayer with such thoughts may have been persuaded to think again by an increased offer, now with the reduction of the cap that is not possible without losing one of two players from the squad depth.

Murphy just wasn't good enough,way out of his depth regardless of who he had at his disposal!

[sam16111986]

As many have said a lot of players have departed under Borthwick just as several did under Murphy, the main reason being that most were inherited from the O'Connor days and they were just not good enough. Murphy inherited a weak set of forwards and a superb back line that was never on even one occasion available to him and he never had the luxury of a first team squad pre- season. Borthwick had plenty of time to assess his squad and the luxury of being able to select weaker teams in the knowledge that the match result was secondary to learning about individuals.
Possibly salary negotiations caused by the pandemic upset a few but they were necessary for the survival of our club, and as our action was mirrored by most other Premiership teams probably necessary fr the survival of our sport as a professional club based game. Ford and Genge have given family reasons for their move, I see no cause to doubt them, in the past aplayer with such thoughts may have been persuaded to think again by an increased offer, now with the reduction of the cap that is not possible without losing one of two players from the squad depth.

Murphy just wasn't good enough,way out of his depth regardless of who he had at his disposal!

Murphy I don't think had the skills to be a head coach but could have been a good DOR. The issue for him was that he got a temp job early in a season with a shocking pre season overseen by the incompetent MOC. The squad was awful and it being a temp position meant that he didn't have much opportunity for change. When the full job got dropped on him it really was a no win situation. By the time the club appointed the head coach we needed which would allow Murphy to do the DOR job that might have actually suited him it was to late. The whole backroom set up was a mess.

Remember the development pathway to the first team came in under Murphy and he pushed a lot of the young guys into senior rugby.

[johnthegriff]

I disagree with Scott but I don't suppose that is news. Murphy inherited an unfit squad, with a backline made up of Vienue, out for the season, Youngs, May, Tuilagi and Ford who when fit also had England duties plus Toomua and Polatau-nau alternating between the U.K and Australia and Denton's career ending injury, he also had to cope with a " Rugby Committee" interfering in team matters. For his second season none of the aforementioned players or Cole, Genge, Kalamafoni were available. I seriously doubt that any coach even Borthwick would have done much better.

[DeadlyDunc]

I disagree with Scott but I don't suppose that is news. Murphy inherited an unfit squad, with a backline made up of Vienue, out for the season, Youngs, May, Tuilagi and Ford who when fit also had England duties plus Toomua and Polatau-nau alternating between the U.K and Australia and Denton's career ending injury, he also had to cope with a " Rugby Committee" interfering in team matters. For his second season none of the aforementioned players or Cole, Genge, Kalamafoni were available. I seriously doubt that any coach even Borthwick would have done much better.

GM should get some credit for stepping into the breach and up to a point starting the process of reconstructing the squad. He brought in what are now key players (e.g. Hanro) & wasn't afraid of blooding the youngsters that we are now raving about such as JvP, Martin, Heyes etc

Reading recent interviews, I think the clash of styles with SB and GM was an issue with the likes of GM signed players like Zach Henry saying recently that he was an instinctive player whereas SB wants more pragmatism and players sticking to an agreed plan so i guess there would have been some conflicting ideas being put out at times.

Ultimately the Board backed SB and up to now you can't argue with the decision based on results!

[Jacko27]

Now that mining is all but finished in this country, agriculture is highly mechanised and building sites are far more tightly controlled, it seems to me that being a professional rugby player is about the most physically demanding and dangerous mainstream occupation that's left. Maybe this observation is in the wrong place but perhaps it helps explain why players - who after all are just employees - need to be hardheaded and unsentimental about where they play and how much they are paid for it.

[Scott1]

I disagree with Scott but I don't suppose that is news. Murphy inherited an unfit squad, with a backline made up of Vienue, out for the season, Youngs, May, Tuilagi and Ford who when fit also had England duties plus Toomua and Polatau-nau alternating between the U.K and Australia and Denton's career ending injury, he also had to cope with a " Rugby Committee" interfering in team matters. For his second season none of the aforementioned players or Cole, Genge, Kalamafoni were available. I seriously doubt that any coach even Borthwick would have done much better.

See the results and performances, awful! Should've gone way ,way earlier. one of the worse top flight coaches I've ever seen,with Hooper vying for that title. Mauger would've done better and MOC did! Great player ,great servant,club legend but terrible first team coach, let's not get romantic over his Tigers standing as a legend

[Tiglon]

Geordan failed as Head Coach, but there were a lot of mitigating circumstances as John identifies above. It is also indisputable that, looking back, there were many very good things done by Murphy, in terms of the youth setup, giving youngsters opportunities and signing players who are now integral to our team. IMO Geordan did a lot of work that gave Borthwick a better platform to build on, and the setup above/behind him him was probably to blame for our darker years.

My problem with Henry talking about being an instinctive player, and where I side 100% with SB, is that you don't win rugby matches consistently by just playing instinctively, not any more. Even as an individual player, playing instinctively rarely brings success, just look at Quade Cooper and Danny Cipriani - both insanely talented, enjoyable to watch, but they don't win much. Also worth pointing out that Zach Henry is a long, long way below their level of ability and nowhere near good enough to be just an instinctive player. If he doesn't want to play a structured game then I'm afraid he isn't going to get very far in modern professional rugby.

[old one eye]

Average UK salary is £26k. I think players need to get a grip. Argument about career only lasting 10-12 years is false, as most go onto something else via connections they have made while playing. The game doesn’t owe them a lifetimes income in 10 years.

It's not just the short career span. It's the high risk nature of the job with potential for life changing injury any game, plus the long term health effects that most players have.

Plus, very few players make a well-paid career out of rugby afterwards.

How many rugby players suffer life changing injuries vs those working on building sites and in other high risk environments? If a player earns £400k per year, that is worth over x15 times the average. They can then go on and do an average paid job. Compare it to a junior doctor etc. People make a choice and you hope players play because they love the game, not what they can earn by doing it.

Most of us who played in years gone by, did so for the love of the game, I was lucky in that as a serviceman i got plenty of time off to train and play.
Other top players (apart from a bit of boot money) played for fun, worked and planned for the future and took the risk of injury as part of the game.
I know the physicality is higher now and the risk of injury is considerably higher, it’s still not a bad job doing what you love for good money

[Tigris]

Looks like Cyle Brink may be off the the Blue Bulls (based on an odd "dead-end" link on a news feed to their website)