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

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Whitcombe's primary roles are to scrummage, tackle himself silly and lift at the lineout. If he can do those basics well 99.9% of the time then anything over and above that is a bonus for me at this stage in his career.

That's what a props job is, props who can't scrummage are worthless regardless of any other attributes in their game.

[Jimmy Skitz]

the loose play may be a confidence thing, perhaps he is concentrating so much on his core responsibilities he isn't going for it ball in hand?

[LekkerTigers]

As others have said, tighthead stocks look promising. Heyes is great and Hurd looks solid when he gets a chance. Rowntree and Hoyt are promising. Hoyt looks enormous, already, and Rowntree looks to be technically sound (I know he moved from loosehead to tighthead). Maybe one more prop to sure the gap between Heyes and Hurd (if he doesn't pan out and moves on).

[TigerFeetSteve]

Whitcombe is clearly a very promising prop but as a player the only thing he has in common with Genge is the number on his shirt. Genge offers a lot more around the pitch. Hopefully it's something Whitcombe can develop but no signs of it yet.

True, but for me if he can scrummage well enough he can start at 1. Other facets of his game can be added, plus we can have other ball carrying options etc.

[TigerFeetSteve]

As others have said, tighthead stocks look promising. Heyes is great and Hurd looks solid when he gets a chance. Rowntree and Hoyt are promising. Hoyt looks enormous, already, and Rowntree looks to be technically sound (I know he moved from loosehead to tighthead). Maybe one more prop to sure the gap between Heyes and Hurd (if he doesn't pan out and moves on).

I may be wrong thought Hoyt was a Loosehead

[sapajo]

Whitcombe's primary roles are to scrummage, tackle himself silly and lift at the lineout. If he can do those basics well 99.9% of the time then anything over and above that is a bonus for me at this stage in his career.

This maybe Sapajo didn’t realise that his loose game can’t be compared with one of the most destructive runners at prop in the northern hemisphere

Read my post again and that's the precise point I was making.

[Rugbygramps]

Whitcombe's primary roles are to scrummage, tackle himself silly and lift at the lineout. If he can do those basics well 99.9% of the time then anything over and above that is a bonus for me at this stage in his career.

This maybe Sapajo didn’t realise that his loose game can’t be compared with one of the most destructive runners at prop in the northern hemisphere

Read my post again and that's the precise point I was making.

I think you’re words were no signs as yet but we will wait and see and the only thing in common was the number on their back. You are of course entitled to your opinion but seems there isn’t much agreement at present

[LekkerTigers]

As others have said, tighthead stocks look promising. Heyes is great and Hurd looks solid when he gets a chance. Rowntree and Hoyt are promising. Hoyt looks enormous, already, and Rowntree looks to be technically sound (I know he moved from loosehead to tighthead). Maybe one more prop to sure the gap between Heyes and Hurd (if he doesn't pan out and moves on).

I may be wrong thought Hoyt was a Loosehead

I've only seen him play tighthead. He's only 18 (I think), so he could always move to loosehead.

[Tiglon]

I think we can all agree that Whitcombe is not as good as Genge. But, where are you going to find a prop who's as good as Genge in the loose, and how much is he going to cost?

It's not ideal to have a prop starting regularly so early in his development, but I think what he has proved so far this season is that he isn't going to let anyone down if he is pressed into regular service.

When Steward broke through, although I was hugely impressed by him, I did have slight reservations about how little he seemed to get involved with ball in hand. He's now proved that there was nothing at all to worry about and he has become very effective in attack, very quickly. I do wonder if one of Borthwick's things is that he asks young players to start off by focusing on just the basics and letting others around them take on more of the extra workload so as to avoid putting them under too much pressure too soon. I have a feeling we will see more of Whitcombe around the park as he gets more comfortable in the team.

[ay2oh]

Whitcombe played at 6 earlier in the season so is fairly mobile.

[Tigers86asw]

Genge is obviously a better player but I doubt how good his scrummaging is at the highest level. Englands scrum has been poor since 2019.

With Cole likely to retire soon the balance of props may well swap. We have the set piece specialist in Cole and the ball carrying Genge- with Heyes and Whitcombe we may have it the other way around- perhaps not to the same degree but still there. SB will no doubt be aware of this.

[johnthegriff]

Whitcombe whilst playing age group rugby proved himself to be pretty mobile, I think it very likely he has been told to concentrate on the basics as he establishes himself in the Premiership. Genge himself at Whitcombe's age was not as good as he is now, I am not even sure he was as good as Jimmy Whitcombe.

[longlivethecrumbie]

Whitcombe's primary roles are to scrummage, tackle himself silly and lift at the lineout. If he can do those basics well 99.9% of the time then anything over and above that is a bonus for me at this stage in his career.

That's what a props job is, props who can't scrummage are worthless regardless of any other attributes in their game.

And yet, there are several props who have made decent careers and have been completely unable to scrummage

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Whitcombe's primary roles are to scrummage, tackle himself silly and lift at the lineout. If he can do those basics well 99.9% of the time then anything over and above that is a bonus for me at this stage in his career.

That's what a props job is, props who can't scrummage are worthless regardless of any other attributes in their game.

And yet, there are several props who have made decent careers and have been completely unable to scrummage

Not at Tigers though.

[longlivethecrumbie]

That's what a props job is, props who can't scrummage are worthless regardless of any other attributes in their game.

And yet, there are several props who have made decent careers and have been completely unable to scrummage

Not at Tigers though.

There has been the odd one over the years, but not too many for it to become a habit.