Tigers Power to Local Win

Tigers title ambitions remain alive after a nerve jangling 26-21 win away to newly local rivals Wasps.  Tigers went into the game knowing that only a win would do and responded to the knock out rugby pressure with a fantastic performance bristling with power but married with the patience needed to break down modern defences. 

Tigers raced into a 10 nil lead in the first ten minutes and kept it the whole game with a Freddie Burns penalty followed up by the first try.  Tom Youngs and Graham Kitchener combined down the front of the line out, an old Wasps move we have been tricked by more than once, gaining good ground inside the 22 and skilfully keeping the ball in play.  Jordan Crane recycled possession and set an off side line before Mulipola and Tom Youngs trucked it up again.  Mat Tait and Adam Thompstone squirmed their way through tackles before Ben Youngs spotted Niall Morris one on one against Christian Wade.  Goneva drew the last man and Wade was powerless to prevent the Leicester full back shrugging off his challenge to score in the corner.

Goode got Wasps onto the score board after a soft offside 40m out by Seremaia Bai; Burns nibbled another three points after Wasps full back Andrea Masi was caught by a terrific Tigers kick chase only for Goode to score another 3 points following heavy pressure in the 22, Tigers lasting 14 phases before conceding the penalty to bring the score to 13-6 to Tigers.

Tigers’ second try came after 30 minutes, from a lineout Mulipola, Cole, Crane and Thorn smashed forward into the 22 before Seremaia Bai isolated Andy Goode on the fringe of the ruck and drove him back to within inches of the line.  Once again Ben Youngs was the architect of the score phase, a fast whipped pass cut out 5 Tigers and 4 Wasps to leave Burns and Goneva with a two on one against a hapless Wade.  The Wasps wing could do nothing as Burns drew him in before sending Goneva over for his first try since December.

Goode quickly reduced the arrears with a penalty for something in a ruck, Barnes explanation is cut off and BT never bother to show a replay.  Off feet against Gibson I think?

Tigers were playing with real intent, running the ball from within our own half and the forwards passing to each other just before or just after contact.  Go forward rugby.  Smashing the rucks to clear out the men, not relying on the officials to give us quick ball.

And then it all boiled over.  Just before half time Nathan Hughes was off his feet and killing the ball the penalty was due to us, but Barnes was not signalling and Seremaia Bai decided to ruck him out.  The contact looked jarring at full pace and Barnes produced a yellow card.  Then renowned Tigers fans Sean Davy made him watch again, with unclear camera angles in super slow motion, to wrongly decide Bai had made contact with Hughes’ head.  

On the replay he clearly smashes into Hughes shoulder, but Davy and BT show the angle from in front of Hughes many times where we cannot see the point of impact and only see Hughes head move only once showing the wider angle from above where you can see the impact is on the shoulder and the head only moves because of a glancing blow from Bai's arm.

Bai has a right to ruck Hughes out there and his technique whilst arguably illegal was no different to any other player on either side at any other ruck.  When Hughes kicked George North’s head and injured him out of the season BT commentator Laurence Dallaglio led the media campaign to clear him.  Does our own Austin Healey do the same for a piece of legitimate play that ends with no injury to Hughes?

No he does not.  Instead he bleats for a card prompting the replay on the big screen, it takes the BT Sports feed, which causes the red card.  Thanks Austin!

On half way what should have been a chance for Tigers to stretch their lead ended up with Goode reducing the deficit to only 6 points.

In the second half Tigers did not let the man missing affect their game.  Wasps had more of the territory and won scrum penalties where Tiger chose to pack only 7 men.  On our first entry to the Wasps 22 Mat Tait was pile drived head first into the turf by Alapati Leuia, though Barnes seemingly has no problem with this potential neck breaking tackle or the no arms tackles from Wasps’ hooker Festuccia, he does spot Ashley Johnson off his feet and Burns slots the penalty to stretch the lead back out to 9.

With the extra man and the impetus in their favour Wasps were slowing gaining more chances, Adam Thompstone winning the foot race to a ball kicked in goal, Burns being charged down then Wasps bursting through the left wing.

None came to much but Wasps dug into Tigers lead with two penalties, the first for holding on just outside our 22, the second for a harsh off feet call on Salvi when Haskell clearly enters the ruck from the side.

With the lead trimmed to 3 points Tigers knew they couldn’t just dig and hold on any more.  With Sam Harrison, Ed Slater and Christian Loamanu on Tigers took the game back to Wasps.

A lineout was won scrappily on half way but Tigers kept possession grinding out 18 phases, driving into the Wasps 22.  On the 18^th ruck Burns broke right towards the touchline, smashing Andy Goode in the tackle, on the front foot and with quick ball Loamanu times run to the line perfectly to slip between Johnson and Goode.  Stopped agonisingly inches short the ball again quickly recycled and flung wildly to the wing where Adam Thompstone was on hand to dot down in the corner.

Onto the TMO and whilst Loamanu may or may not have reached the line there was no question of a double movement so the try stood.  Tigers could question though why we were not awarded a penalty try, as there was a clear attempt to kick the ball out of Loamanu’s hands.  After recent events you’d have thought Wasps might know better than that.

With Burns pushing the kick wide Tigers had an 8 point advantage.  Wasps quickly cut the advantage to 5; Alex Lozowski slotting a long kick after a very tight call for an early tackle against Salvi.  On slow motion replay the decision is wrong but was so tight you cannot complain about the real time call.

That made the closing moments tight.  Tigers ran down the clock with a number of scrums and looked to earn the winning penalty at least 3 times, only for Barnes to blow the other way and keep the game alive.

Wasps were game and played the ball wide getting to the edge of Tigers 22 but in a clash of Marcos Ayerza, fuming after the last penalty, and James Haskell it was the Argentine who came off better forcing the ball loose to end the game.

With the shock Exeter victory over Saracens on Sunday we know that a win, any win, over Northampton will confirm Tigers as third in the league and face a trip to Bath whilst a loss will almost certainly see us miss out on the play offs for the first time in over a decade.  Pressure brought out the best in us this week, can we really keep it up for another 3?

Thompstone on Time as Tigers tackle Treviso

A last play try from Adam Thompstone kept Tigers' European hopes alive as it secured the 4 try bonus point; Flood's conversion made the final score 34-3.

The result needs to be put in the context that Treviso finished the last season 7th in the RaboDirect Pro12; this is where Bath finished in the Aviva Premiership.  We would not be moaning if we got a 5 point win against Bath what ever the circumstances.

The performance though was mixed to say the least.

Tigers are never comfortable under lights, this game was moved due to a clash with Leicester City v Huddersfield (won 2-1 if you're interested), and this nasty habit reared its head again.  Treviso were excellent for large parts at spoiling the possession.  The laissez faire approach to the ruck by Pascal Gauzere was taken up with relish by Barbieri, Zanni and Vosawi who were a constant nuisance in and around the break down.

Ed Slater was magnificent, his line and pass for the final try were inch perfect, but he really is a lock in his break down work.  That is not an insult or an attempt to disparage him, he is a smasher not a grabber.

Outside of Slater, often marooned on the wing like our blindside often is, and the effervescent Tom Youngs Tigers carrying game was stilted and ineffective.  Waldrom made several telling interventions but tired, whether it was a lack of match practice or an injury I cannot say.

The back play drew most of the ire from the messageboards, and it was not good, but the ball was slow and stodgy whilst the Trevisian defence was fast and aggressive.  Going wide and deep plays into their hands.

Leicester opened the scores after 16 minutes.  Ben Youngs ran a smart wrap around with Bowden as the pivot to open up the Italian's blindside defence from a midfield scrum.  Youngs kept the move alive but without an offside line the Treviso defence recovered.  Hepetema, an early sub for Goneva, showed some lovely foot work to beat his man before Michele Rizzo sped out of the line to smash Toby Flood late and incur the penalty.

From the restart Berquist kicked straight out so Tigers had another midfield scrum.  A penalty was awarded when Rizzo, again, stood up.  Youngs scented the chance and went quickly, he drew his man and put Niall Morris into space.  McLean was beaten all ends up as he turned his back on the play.  But no!

Pascal Gauzere ruled that Youngs had taken it in front of the mark.  With the aid of my TV recording I can clearly see that he was wrong and that Youngs was indisputably not in front of the mark.  It was not even particularly close.  Perhaps J.P. Lux had had a word?

An harsh call for a forward pass by Toby Flood lost the move from the penalty.

But Tigers were finding their grove if not quit finishing it off.  Ben Youngs kicked intelligently for the corner and Californian winger Blaine Scully showed real desire chasing the kick, putting McLean under pressure.  His clearance kick was long but flat giving Morris excellent counter attacking ball.  His trademark break and off load saw the Tigers forwards stampeding through the center ground.  

Now that is more like it!  Tom Youngs takes it on. Kitchener turns it inside with a basketball pass to Mulipola on the charge.  Quick ball and Flood puts it inside the rush to Ed Slater; he goes inside right again to Waldrom who makes 10 yards.  No ruckers from Treviso means Kitchener can pick and go through the heart.  Botes just about stops the rampaging Salopian on the 5m but refuses to roll away.  Advantage.  Flood wastes it with a nothing chip.

Fair play to Gauzere he had no messing around and produced the yellow card straight away.  Tigers now completely in the ascendency and playing beautifully.  They take the points 6-0.  Not aggressive enough or showing the opposition correct respect?

Treviso weathered the storm well though as they played possession for the bulk of the 10 minutes.  The rain was now getting more persistent and Tigers hands started to falter.  Hepetema juggled but gathered then Geoff Parling fumbled an easy catch.  From the scrum Salvi then Waldrom slipped off tackles on Bob Barbieri.  He fed Manoa Vosawi for an eye catching break but wasted it with an atrocious pass to no one in particular

A succession of penalties from Treviso marched them back to their own goal line.  They dealt with the first maul well enough but again did not roll away and Tigers did not need asking a third time.  A well constructed maul saw Thomas "the Tank" barrel his way over for a 13-0 half time lead.

Tigers were back on form at the start of the second half, a trademark Ben Youngs break opened up the play and Ed Slater took advantage of an extremely loose definition of tackler not held to snatch a huge gain.  Traditional Tigers multi phase rugby saw the ball travel to within 5 yards of the try line where Thompstone was tackled into touch.

It wasn't over though.  Kitchener pilfered the Italian lineout.  Waldrom Went through the heart of the ruck and wriggled and squirmed and crawled and finally made it over the line.  Ruled as a double movement I have to question at what point was he held?  To my eye the first crawl is clearly unheld then he scores the try with his permitted single movement.  Little did we know at the same time they were also discussing this at Wembley.  Waldrom's was a darker shade but both decisions were gray rather than black or white.

The frustrations began to set in.  A poor pass from Ben Youngs.  A penalty against Cole.  A penalty against Tom Youngs.  13-3; a penalty for Botes the South African-Italian scrum half.

Flood passes to no one then cross kicks to no one in particular.  The clock is ticking away and the crowd is becoming agitated.  Another Flood pass goes to floor then bounces over Scully's head.  The rain is pouring down.

Flood is drifting away from Youngs, the passes have to be longer and loopier.  The Treviso defence is driving, pushing, harrying the Tigers into mistakes.  Flood and Hepetema mistime a simple switch.

The tide turns as Gauzere first bins the captain Antonio Pavanello for not rolling away then 40 seconds later Tongan-Japanese winger Christian Loamanu for a swinging arm high tackle on Blaine Scully.  Down to 13 men the Italian barricades finally are breached.

Another driving maul, this time with Tom Youngs in the driving seat.  Louis Deacon and David Mele are now on.  Deacon's muscularity is immediately to the fore as the maul surges over the line for a Tom Youngs try.

It was not all our own way though as Mele tried to use Thompstone on the blidside rather than let the maul do its work.  Now it was Bowden's turn to have a few moments.  A poor pass in the vicinity of everyone but to the hands of no one was followed up with a fairly sloppy dropped catch when quick hands could have seen a try.  Hepetema then throws a pass behind Thompstone's feet and into touch.

The need for 4 tries was seeing the players choke. The crowd were getting on to them and they were trying to force it too wide too early.  Forwards through the middle, draw them in would have been far far more effective.  Ed Slater slashes through a few week tackles but Salvi knocks it on at the ruck.  AHHHHHHH.

Dan Cole snaffles a turnover in midfield and Tigers break through.  Swift inter passing from Crane, Morris, Bowden and Thompstone gets us to within 5 of the line on the Crumbie touchline.  Deacon straightens a Flood pass into the shadow of the posts and we have advantage for an Italian offside.  It goes back left to Bowden who is gang tackled.

Mele takes the tap penalty.  Simple hands, take pass, draw man, pass from Flood and Crane puts Scully into the corner.  A delightful delay from Crane makes sure of the try.

Back to 15 men and Treviso are back to frustrating us.  It's panic stations and it isn't working.  Treviso are building possession in the 22, it's not the score we are bothered about it's the time.  5 minutes left.  Then 4.  Then 3.  We are still in our own 22.  

79 minutes up and we win a penalty from a scrum in our own 22.  It's now or never boys.  No mistakes.

Parling wins the lineout and Bowden takes it up.  Briggs and Mulipola prominent with their carries.  Dan Cole picks and goes.  It attracted the defenders, Slater and Thompstone slip wide and Bowden fires the pass wide to find Slater with the 2 on 1.  Slater does the simple thing that many make look so hard by holding his line, holding his nerve and passing as late as possible.

It is no easy finish for Thompstone as he steps off his left foot towards the posts beating one, beating two, beating three.  Relief.  He's got it.  Try number 4, worth 5 points.  Leaves us with 6 points in the group.

So it wasn't vintage Leicester but we'd be pretty chuffed stopping Bath at source and putting 4 past them so let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Work to do but job done.

Goneva the Great Roars Tigers to Victory as it all goes Pear shaped for Worcester

2 moments of Fijian brilliance lit up Welford Road as first Josh Matavesi then Vereniki Goneva scored scintillating individual tries.  Worcester’s Matavesi brought the Warriors to within 10 points in the second half after his loop round the back of a ruck was swiftly followed by an outrageous dummy which did for Ed Slater, Anthony Allen and half the crowd.

Not being the quickest player to grace the Welford Road turf he only just made it in the corner following pressure from Niall Morris and Julian Slavi.

But not for the first time Vereniki Goneva cast his spell and the Tigers crowd was enchanted, as was the Warriors defence, he stepped inside one, two, three, back outside round four, five, six before wriggling through seven and eight to claim the bonus point try with only 6 seconds to go.  

Tigers started brightly; Lamb spotted the overlap and Tigers went from their own 22.  The ball was spread from Parling onto Thompstone who raced away into the Worcester half.  Zimbabwean Mike Williams flopped an arm round the side of the ruck and dragged the ball onto his side, the referee spotted it and Lamb made no mistake putting Tigers up 3-0 early.

Tigers extended their lead to 8-0 when Adam Thompstone pounced on Niall Morris’s delicately weighted kick through.  Anthony Allen had run the dummy line to hold the midfield and Goneva had swept round the back, beautifully passing almost 15 meters to find Morris also joining the line.

Lamb and Mieres exchanged penalties to make it 11-3.
 

With the clock now past 40 Tigers were attacking into the Worcester 22.  Jordan Crane made a powerful burst through the middle of the ruck, twisting to free his hands and make the pop the pass to the onrushing David Mele who scooted in to score on his competitive debut for the club.  Mele scored only twice in his 7 years at Perpginan but along with his pre-season tries against Ulster and Jersey that is already three in his first month at the Tigers!

Lamb’s simple conversion made it 18-3 at half time.

Tigers further stretched their lead when Jordan Crane was on the back of a driving maul.  Young referee Luke Pearce spotted the grounding and thankfully awarded the try without re-course to the TMO, if we had had to go “upstairs” they might have struggled to see the grounding.

Worcester were down to 14 men at this point after Mike Williams’s late charge on Ryan Lamb.  Dean Ryan was not a happy bunny, sarcastically declaring “I'd forgotten you're not allowed to touch a Leicester No10 at Welford Road, I should have mentioned it to everyone before the game.”  How anyone could forget such a basic tenant of the game is beyond me.

Tigers’ lineout then started to malfunction with 2 misses and one scrappy win destroying momentum.  Pearce harshly ruled Parling was blocking on what the lineout nerds describe as a “shift drive”, which was what I thought Americans called manual cars but apparently is when the catcher pass down to another player to set up a maul.  Either way the opportunity was gone and Worcester grasped this chance at the last chance saloon with both hands, drinking deep.

Professional arsehole Chris Jones was introduced to the action at this point and annoyingly managed to slip through the challenge of Logovi’i Mulipola to get the Worcester side back into contention.

Cornish born Fijian Matavesi was next to enter the stage with his outrageous dummy that fooled everyone.

Ryan Lamb had started the game fantastically but as the pressure came on his game fell apart, he seemed to suffer from mental fatigue; getting bored and just hoof it away after a handful of phases.  That is not the way to get the best out of Tigers muti-phase tactics and he was hooked off before it all went pear shaped and Worcester got any closer.

Owen Williams didn’t have long, only 5 minutes, but this briefest morsel of a cameo had the Crumbie stand slathering for much more than an amuse bouche next time.  Williams’s long pass sent Tom Croft galloping down the touchline.  The roar went up as the crowd anticipated another trademark Tom Croft score.  But face stamping scrum half Paul Hodgson showed some shoe in the other sense to get across and make the try saving tackle.

Showing his nous earned from 171 First class games for Leicester, England & the Lions Croft kept his ankles in the air, the ball in play and kept the chance of the bonus point try alive.  Mele spread it to Williams who found Goneva in at inside centre.  Then the Flying Fijian’s magic feet bamboozled the tiring Worcester defence and found the try line to rapturous applause from the Leicester faithful.

After the game there was some concern that Dan Cole might have bitten Ignacio Mieres in the 76^th minute.  Replays however showed that the Argentine play maker’s hands in Cole’s mouth and no reaction until the tackle collapsed on the floor.  Now Rugby’s “justice” system can never surprise with its ability to ban players for nothing; but surely we can safely say that the offence of having your mouth fingered whilst tackled is not going to be added to the list that now includes swearing in the vicinity of a touch judge.

The UltraSubMarine Awards

So the inaugural season of the UltraSubMarines blog is over and we have celebrated some notable achievements.  The Tigers became English Champions for a record extending 10th time, Champ10ns as the branding has it, we also beat the Maori on a raucous night at Welford Road in November, their first loss for 5 years, and made our Wembley debut in September with a "thrilling" 9-all draw against Saracens. 

The players have been positively overburdened by garlands this season as Tom Youngs won Aviva Premiership Player of the season, Dan Bowden won try, and a whopping 8 players made the TalksSport Dream XV.  But I know what you are all really wondering.  Who does Leicester Tigers' premium reporter think is Player of the Season?  And if Martin Crowson isn't available what about you?

So here it goes my take on the Awards Season:


Signing of the Season:

We have a veritable smorgasbord to choose from after signing at least 11 players over the summer and during the season.  It might be Dan Bowden or Adam Thompstone, what about Flying Fijian winger Vereniki Goneva or Miles Benjamin?  Alright probably not Miles Benjamin.
  
In reality there seem to be two candidates: Goneva and Thompstone.  Goneva signed from Pyrenees side Tarbes and has 29 caps for his native Fiji.  Thompstone came from London Irish after missing the best part of 2 seasons with a broken ankle.  Goneva bookended the season with tries on the opening day at London Welsh and in the final against Northampton, making 15 starts, whilst Thompstone played the middle part of the season with 20 starts scoring 9 tries.  Between them they locked down the left wing spot playing 33 of 36 games, Niall Morris preferred for one league game and Alex Lewington playing 2 LV Cup games. 

So who is my signing of the season?  I can’t deny it I’m in love with Vereniki Goneva.  Typically Fijian in attack with his hard running, free passing style he marries this with a vociferous work rate in defence and moments of game breaking skill such as against the Ospreys at home for the first try and a similar inside break for Morris’s try in the Final.

Try of the Season:

Tigers are a team of both great try scorers and scorers of great tries.  91 tries in 36 games this season means there are plenty to choose from and it is impossible for even the most ardent of Tigers fan to recall them all.  But some stand out in the memory and will stand the test of time.  Who will ever forget Ed Slater dummying and charging his way over from the half way line, out pacing an England age group winger in the process?  Kitchener ghosting his way past the Saints defence and into the corner during the final.  Ben Youngs’s 80m tap and go at the Rec.  The Premiership panel considered Dan Bowden’s touch down of George Ford’s chip after Ford’s break the best but we have the freedom of Europe to pick from and it is there where I find my favourite.

Treviso in December.  It was bitterly cold and wet.  A boggy pitch was making it tough going against a sturdy and determined opposition.  We were perhaps not agreeing with every call from the referee, though worse from him was to come, but he gave us a penalty practically on our own goal line.  Seeing the play bunched in front of him Youngs went quickly sprinting out of the 22 in a wide arc.  Anthony Allen straightened and put the charging Mat Tait into space and into the Italians half before getting it back from Tait’s out the back of the hand off load.  Allen then linked play to the left wing Adam Thompstone who raced home into the corner.

In the end that try won us the game, saving our face from an embarrassing defeat in Italy and helped us to win the group and make the European quarter finals.





Game of the Season: 

 It’s so tempting to pick the final.  A 20 point thrashing against your local rivals in the final, how couldn’t that be the game of the season?  But there have been so many others it would surely betray a lack of imagination to just pick the last one? 

Some of the other performances have been magnificent.  Ospreys at home in October with its crazy frantic last ten minutes that sealed the bonus point and ultimately the group; the Maori in November when denuded of our internationals we took on the famous New Zealand tourists and sent them home with their first loss in 5 years; the Saints in Northampton during March and Quins in the semi final too, the form we exhibited after the 6 Nations when we finally had our full squad back was sublime and the I’ve rarely seen a team so dominant as those two games. 

But bringing the A game when it matters hasn’t always been a strength of the Tigers.  And it mattered last Saturday more than it ever has done before.

Academy Player of the Season:

To be eligible for this award you must have played some part in the Under 18s Academy League. 

The Academy had a fantastic season winning the inaugural Academy League Northern Conference with a 100% record of 6 Bonus Point wins out of 6.  They also had 12 players represent their nation at various levels from U-17s to U-20s spread across 4 countries with England, Wales, Italy and Canada all requiring a Tiger at one stage or another.  

The academy seems packed with potential at the moment with guys like Harry Thacker, Ed Milne, Javiah Pohe and Rhys Williams impressing.  However the winner of this award has also been able to make his mark at a higher level.  Since his summer signing from Wasps Henry Purdy has had a dream season, top try scorer in the autumn’s A League, making his full Tigers debut in November’s LV Cup encounter with Saracens, helping England to win the U-20s Six Nations and currently in France representing the Under 20s in the Junior World Cup. 

With Goneva, Thompstone, Morris, Benjamin and Camacho ahead of him it’s going to be hard work to break into the Tigers line up but this young man should back himself to achieve that goal.

Young Player of the Season (U 23):

The definition of a Young Player is one born after 1^st September 1989 and is defined as Under 23.

It’s fair to say Tigers have some outstanding options in the category.  But we’ll come to those later.  Even amongst the players we still consider youngsters we have the departing George Ford, Sam Harrison now a veteran of 49 first team appearances and the emerging talent of Fraser Balmain.

But let’s not get like the rest of the British rugby press and celebrate new rather than great.  The others who qualify for this category are Graham Kitchener, England tourist and final try scorer, Steve Mafi, Tongan international almost the equal of Tom Croft, Manu Tuilagi, Lion, Beast, brilliant and Ben Youngs his fellow Lions tourist.

A handy quartet and one that it is a hell of a job to separate.   Steve Mafi had a year scarred with injury after tearing his hamstring against Toulouse in January so misses out; Kitchener had 21 starts as he blossomed into a first team regular but is not a dominant player internationally like Youngs and Manu.

The two Lions are impossible to split; Manu raises his game v Ospreys, Youngs calls with his try v. Bath.  Colleagues with England and now the Lions in the poker game of life they are a competing pair of Royal Flushes.

Are joint winners a cop out? You separate them!

Player of the Season:

For the Tigers collectively this has been a fantastic year but on an individual level it for many it has been simply amazing.  Jordan Crane, Tom Croft and Mat Tait have all returned to regular rugby from career threatening injuries and were like three new world class signings such was there impact. 

Croft has also made the Lions tour alongside 5 of his colleagues as Ben Youngs, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Geoff Parling and Manu Tuilagi all gain the highest representative honour available.  Steve Mafi was part of the Tongan squad that won away in Scotland, whilst Martin Castrogiovanni’s Italy defeated both France and Ireland in the Six Nations.  Scores of players made their Tigers debut, who knows which of the youngsters we will be talking about in years to come? 

But the story has to be Tom Youngs.

This time last year he hadn't even started a Premiership game in the front row, now he is in Hong Kong with the British Lions preparing for the quadrennial assault on the southern hemisphere super powers.  The legend has it that Heyneke Meyer suggested the switch after a sin binning for fighting with a prop in the second team.  Whatever the truth of it the unusual conversion has worked a treat.

He’s had to deal with learning a new and sometimes baffling position and had to deal with taking a massive step backwards to ultimately emerge in a rarefied company he probably would never have reached at centre. 

This season Youngs started in all but two games for which he was available, playing 22 games.  He also made 9 appearances for England including the famous 38-21 win over the All Blacks in which he was at his bullocking best.   

Tom Youngs the Leicester Tigers Ultra SubMarines Player of the Season.


Read my view on Youngs just before his international debut in November