Harlequins 9 Leicester Tigers 19: How to turn a bad week good again

With the capitulation against Ulster neatly abutting the departure of several of the club’s key players, it has been difficult for Tigers fans to see the positives over the last couple of weeks. The Heineken Cup campaign has gone up in smoke and the club’s convention of remaining tight-lipped on incoming players means that the pain of the departures of Billy Twelvetrees, George Skivington, Alesana Tuilagi and Horacio Agulla has been felt before the pleasure of the new arrivals.

(Courtesy of Sky Sports)

The Twelvetrees move, in particular, has been uncomfortable. Neither the player nor his Director of Rugby appear to have grasped a fundamental truth of PR: making private frustrations public so rarely casts the protagonist or the antagonist in a positive light. Twelvetrees is made to look subversive and disloyal by claiming that other members of the squad – still employed by the club and with their own careers to worry about – share his feelings; Cockerill is made to look petulant by claiming his player doesn’t have the bottle in him to fight for a starting place. It doesn’t even matter if any of it is true; it just leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

But player movements aside, if the Ulster result exposed the leak in Leicester’s roof then the events of the last couple of weeks have shown that, though some repairs are undoubtedly needed, the house is still ultimately built on solid foundations. At three separate levels the club are enjoying success: a blend of youth and fringe first-team players are within touching distance of the LV= Cup semi-finals after beating Harlequins 19-9; the Development team have secured yet another A League semi-final after smashing Leeds Carnegie 80-5, and; the Academy team beat England U18s 27-15 in a one-off fixture. By the time Leicester next line up for a Premiership game against Exeter on 11th February, it will be 126 days since their last league defeat.

So although the LV= Cup is seen by most as nothing more than a babysitter, watching over the kids whilst the grown-ups are out at the 6 Nations, Leicester fans can still be heartened by the win against the Aviva Premiership leaders. With no more A League fixtures until April it gave the younger members of the squad a chance to test themselves against opposition at a higher level. And these were opponents with a strong pedigree. Calum Green was pitted against lock Charlie Matthews, hotly tipped to wear the red rose in a few years; former Quins captain Will Skinner was made to have a very quiet day against Tom Armes in the back row; Alex Lewington finished an excellent try opposite Seb Stegmann, who has been involved in 15 out of Quins' 22 games this season and; George Ford went head-t0-head with England Saxon Rory Clegg.

That these young players could grind out a result, outscoring the free-flowing side of English rugby, by three tries to zero, will have given Cockerill plenty of food for thought. Leicester's Director of Rugby seems to have now worked out the right balance between youth and experience in his competition, realising that to play Ryan Bower and Jonny Harris against an ex-England Saxon in Mark Lambert and an ex-Super 15 prop in Tim Fairbrother could have made the whole exercise futile, but to bring one of them on after Boris Stankovich has chewed up the opposition is more valuable.

Andy Forsyth showed the type of cutting edge that is found in only a few Tigers backs for his stunning solo effort, put in a huge number of tackles and mixed his game up well. The irony will surely not have escaped Forsyth that he put in his most assured performance in a Tigers shirt in the same week that a fellow inside centre, 2 years further on in his development, has had to leave to get more regular game time.

It is certain that some of this group of players will be required for the Aviva Premiership games during the 6 Nations. With Thomas Waldrom joining the EPS, Jordan Crane out for the rest of the season and Craig Newby only recently back from a serious injury, the ever-patient Ben Pienaar may have a role to play. Logovi'i Mulipola and Sam Harrison are likely to be first-choice at prop and scrum-half respectively, whilst Calum Green and Andy Forsyth can expect to be in the match-day squad.

For the young players, the LV= Cup is their 6 Nations. Alex Lewington was quoted in the Leicester Mercury after the game as saying, "We have won the A League, which is nice, but it is good to win a competition." This group of players may only be half-way to winning the cup, but, as From The Crumbie Terrace argued a few weeks ago, Leicester are now much better placed for this international period than they were during the World Cup.