UltraSubMarines Awards 2015

Later than usual this year we once again dive it my mind and discover its many, varied and often conflicting opinions about Tigers and our year.

Off the bat it’s fair to say this has been our annus horribilis on just about all fronts.  Playing wise it was the worst for a decade, Paul Burke became the first coach sacked by the club since 2007, bookended by the most dispiriting and devastating defeats I can honestly remember.  Off the field we’ve had a star player convicted of assaulting women police officers and a coach found to have made a profit betting on us to lose and banned.

We also said goodbye to Louis Deacon a truly iconic player of the club, after Martin Johnson Deacon is Leicester’s finest home grown lock, and Anthony Allen a stalwart of the club’s success between 2010 and 2014.

But let’s not wallow in it.  Let’s crack on with the awards! Same order as last two years:

Signing of the season

2013: Vereniki Goneva

2014: Owen Williams

Tigers were as busy as ever in the transfer market last summer securing Freddie Burns, Seremaia Bai, Brad Thorn, Christian Loamanu and Italian international trio Michele Rizzo, Leonardo Ghiraldini and Robert Barbieri.

Much was expected of Burns but he struggled for form in the early half of the season.  Once Owen Williams was ruled out with injury and his place secure he did grow into the role and was exceptional against Wasps at the Ricoh.

Brad Thorn arrived gave his all and had a real presence about the field but age had slowed him down to a glacial pace at times.

Loamanu showed glimpses of his potential against Wasps and in the late season but a niggling injury meant we never saw the best of him consistently.  Seremaia Bai was a steadying hand for much of the season and a canny addition.

My signing of the season though has to be the aggressive and rambunctious Italian hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini.  I’ve long admired his performances in the Six Nations and he did not disappoint upon closer inspection.  Accurate in the lineout and daring around the field Ghiraldini is the perfect foil for Tom Youngs.

Try of the season

2013: Adam Thompstone v Treviso (A)

2014: Vereniki Goneva v Newcastle (A)

Slim pickings for this award this season.  Normally I peruse the list of matches and the scorers, come up a quick shortlist and google the tries to refresh my memory and make a decision.  Some years it’s easy, this year not so much.  Not a single winner of the Premiership’s Try of the Week and it seems just one nomination.

In the end though we did score some crackers and my favourite was Vereniki Goneva’s second score away to Northampton in December.

Inside his own half and only recently introduced Miles Benjamin receives the ball after Mat Tait had regathered his own up and under.  Going inside then out Benjamin scorched past 4 men and into the 22, a superb cover tackle stops him short but Ben Youngs is on had to quickly clear the ball.

Tait again is involved shipping the ball onto Ghiraldini who draws the last man and finds Goneva lurking on the wing to apply the finish.

Game of the season

2013: Premiership Final v Northampton

2014: Montpellier away

Despite the season several games still standout as really memorable performances.  Wasps at the Ricoh and Sale at home were glimpses to what we can achieve when we pass the ball whilst the game in December again Toulon was a classic backs against the wall true grit performance.  The performance against Ulster at home in October also hinted that this team could do it on the biggest stage.

But one game stood out for me.

Comebacks are surprisingly rare in Tigers history, certainly not from 15 points down and with only 30 minutes to go.

Sale away, December 27th.  Tigers were in the lead for a grand total of 3 minutes.  The locals were not best pleased as we left the ground.

Sale had torn us apart in the first half, genuinely exciting attacking rugby cut us to ribbons and we did well to keep the score respectable, stopping two tries over the line.  When they crossed for the bonus point try in the 45^th minute it looked grim.

But Ayerza, Tom Youngs, Balmain, Thompstone came off the bench and changed the game.  Miles Bejamin scored in the corner to make the game one score then Julian Salvi was driven over by Seremaia Bai with just those 3 precious minutes remaining.

Crazy.

Academy Player of the Season

2013: Henry Purdy

2014: Owen Hills

A quick re-cap here, to qualify for this award you must have played in the Premiership U-18s league.

Tigers U-18s finished second to Northampton in the northern section and beat Bath to claim third place overall.  Last year’s winner Owen Hills had another strong year with 6 tries in 6 starts including a hat trick against Leeds and a first start for the A side.

Four players featured for the U-18s and made first team appearances.  Charlie Beckett started the first game of the U-18s season against Gloucester and made his First XV debut away to London Irish in the LV Cup making a further start at home to Sale and a bench appearance against the Barbarians.  Charlie Thacker featured from the bench in the games against London Irish and Sale whilst Stone Priestley-Nangle featured in the Sale game too.  George Nairn played 3 games for the U-18s and came off the bench against the Barbarians and Cardiff.

Hills and Beckett also appeared for England Under 20s.

My academy player of the year is Charlie Beckett, strongly built with a terrific work ethic this Liverpudlian has already featured for the First XV and impressed.  With a long line of players in front of him he will have to learn from each of them to overtake them but he certainly has the potential to push ahead.

U23 Player of the Season

2013: Manu Tuilagi & Ben Youngs

2014: Manu Tuilagi

With Manu Tuilagi “graduating” from this age bracket there is no defending champion here; qualifying players include Fraser Balmain, Owen Williams, George Catchpole and Harry Thacker. 

Catchpole over took Matt Smith to become a feature of the match day squad post-Christmas, whilst Harry Thacker was trusted with two starts in November where he excelled.

Really though the award is a toss up between Fraser Balmain and Owen Williams.  Balmain become a fixture in the side last season almost by default but this season he was rightly rewarded with being preferred in the match day squad to Italian test prop Michele Rizzo who was in good form himself.

Williams was shunted to 12 early in the season to cover the injuries to Anthony Allen and Seremaia Bai but once the injuries slightly abated he re-claimed his starting 10 jersey from England fly half Freddie Burns.  According to goalkickers.co.za Williams was the best kicker in the Premiership last season and without his cool head many of the tight games before Christmas would have gone the other way.

Therefore my Under 23 player of the Season has to be the Welsh wizard Owen Williams.

Player of the Season

2013: Tom Youngs

2014: Vereniki Goneva

2013’s winner makes a strong case for the award again as his industry and attitude were priceless in many of this season’s lower moments.  Also worthy of a mention in dispatches is Graham Kitchener.  The lock forward came of age as a leader this season, his no nonsense side coming to the fore in the trench warfare of winter whilst his pace and fitness is invaluable in the later season.  How Stuart Lancaster can ignore him is beyond me.

But this season’s stand out player has been the stand in captain Ben Youngs.  Quickly promoted to an unnatural leadership role due injury Youngs thrived on the responsibility and Tigers never looked better than when he took more of the play making responsibilities onto his on shoulders.

A quick and accurate pass is a pre-requisite for a scrum half so it is the game management where Youngs excels, his box kick is world class whilst this season we saw the return of his trade mark breaks around the base.

On a personal note he secured the starting jersey for England ahead of Richard Wigglesworth and long-time adversary Danny Care and seems certain, injuries permitting, to play for England in this autumn’s World Cup.

Tigers take Sandy Park Spoils

Leicester secured their 3rd straight win at Exeter's Sandy Park to share an early lead of the Premiership table.  Tigers won 24-20 after tries from Anthony Allen and Ben Youngs plus 11 points from Freddie Burns and a final penalty from Owen Williams.  Exeter lead 17-13 at half time through scores from Dave Ewers and Haydn Thomas.

Tigers were down a man early after the ludicrously harsh yellow card for Vereniki Goneva's allegedly high tackle.  Goneva's arm clearly makes contact under the collarbone, possibly slipping up to justify a harsh penalty, but by no means over the shoulder to warrant a yellow.

Exeter were by far the better side in the first completely deserving their 4 point half time lead.  Exeter out enthused Tigers, raising the tempo and fly into everything.  Tigers seemed heavy legged and negative in contrast.

Both Exeter tries came after poor control at the base of the scrum from Barbieri; Dave Ewers twisted out of Geoff Parling's tackle for the first score whilst Goneva was still in the bin with Thomas spinning out of Balmain's challenge for the second.

In between Tigers had struck back to level the score with Anthony Allen try.  Following a pin point kick to the corner Tigers pack drew a maul penalty from the Chiefs; with advantage Freddie Burns took the ball level with the left hand up right, leaned back and dithered deliberately to draw the defence closer, and slotted a delicious grubber kick between the posts for Anthony Allen to snaffle for his first try since March.

Dave Ewers breaking his bind from a scrum quickly gave Burns the chance to avenge Thomas' score.  A late flurry of penalties saw Steenson nail another kick after Salvi was ruled to have not released in the tackle, then at the first ruck from the kick off an Exeter were off side from the kick ahead and Burns gave us the half time score of 17-13 to the hosts.

Tigers were much improved in the second half, controlling the territory and raising the physicality levels.  Almost immediately from the kick off Tom Youngs counter ruck forced Haydn Thomas off his feet in the ruck.  Burns was cool under pressure to reduce the arrears to 1.

Burns was again to the fore with two excellent raking kicks pinning Exeter back into the corners.  From the second Kitchener raised his giant paw to claim the throw in and Tigers set the maul.  With another penalty advantage Ben Youngs organised a drive with Leonardo Ghiraldini driving the half back over.  Burns sole blot on his copy book was the missed simple conversion.

But Tigers had the lead for the first time after almost an hour and bitterly hung on to it.  

Gareth Steenson clawed back 3 points when Julian Salvi was ruled off side, after turning down a shot at goal minutes earlier, but it was in vain as Tigers dominated the final 10 minutes to snuff out any chance of defeat.

Jamie Gibson was only denied a fantastic turnover by a Exeter player holding on; Burns found a great touch only 5m from the line and Tigers pack rumbled forwards again.

Only Dave Ewers despairing lunge from the side prevented a try and there was a serious case for a penalty try, if a scrum was marching forward like that I doubt the referee would not storm under the posts.

Tigers took the lineout again but could not replicate the drive; the forwards were more than content in rumbling around the fringe and when Exeter conceded a central ruck penalty Owen Williams was more than happy to slot the 3.

Exeter had some decent territory in the final throes but that was snuffed out with debutant Riccardo Brugnara earning a penalty by forcing Moray Low to stand up in the scrum.

From that line out Tigers ground the clock down and secured the early season win that might prove vital in the final reckonings.

Burns kicks Tigers to win in the rain

Tigers finished a mixed bag of a preseason with a tight 21-17 win against Cardiff in the Welford Road rain.  Freddie Burns slotted 11 points with tries from Bob Barbieri and Ben Youngs; Cardiff’s points came through a Lloyd Williams try, a Rhys Patchell drop goal and 3 Patchell penalties.

Tigers debuted their new bright orange away kit, “Cherry Tomato” as the manufactures have it, and their new bright orange new big screen sponsors Sthil.  Equally eye catching was the opening 10 minutes; Tigers attacked with pace and vigour to score two tries of good quality.

First Manu Tuilagi took the ball down the Crumbie blindside; with his path blocked, belying the internet intellegencia who decry him as a bosh merchant without a brain or skill, he fancied his chances with a grubber kick.  The bounce deceived Wales 7s international Dan Fish and let Bob Barbieri claim the loose ball for his first try in Tigers colours.

The second was an all time Welford Road classic.  Burns threw a fantastic long pass to find Tuilagi, the Samoan burst powerfully through the middle before passing to Goneva.  The Fijian freed the arms and found Ben Youngs sweeping behind in support, who beat the last man to score.

Burns was on target with the first conversion but elicited the famous Crumbie groan when his second attempt sailed wide.  Welcome to Leicester, Freddie.

Cardiff had looked out of sorts in the early stages, as if Warburton and co. had celebrated the week’s long awaited peace deal between the WRU and the Regions a little bit too much.  The visitors eventually found their feet and scored from their first real attack.  Fly half Patchell made an outside break, his pace taking him away from a despairing Barbieri lunge, with the defence broken he committed Goneva before passing to Williams, the Welsh scrum half just eluded the covering defence to score.

Patchell missed the conversion but chipped further into the lead when referee Mathew Carley ruled Salvi offside from a contested high ball.  4 minutes later Patchell landed a second penalty for a half time score of 12-11.

Cardiff made a raft of substitutes at half time including a whole replacement front row; it made little difference as Tigers possessed superior power all game.  Patchell gave Cardiff the lead after half time with a superb drop goal and then stretched the lead following a bizarre penalty against a rampant Tigers scrum.

In a heavy down pour Tigers tightened up and started to utilise the forwards much more to bring the game under control.  Tigers produced a sustained period of pressure in the Cardiff half with the Welsh side giving away a penalty for Burns to reduce the arrears to two.

Some of the Tigers fans were disappointed that we didn’t try for the corner and the 5 points from the second half penalties, but I can’t agree with this.  Burns needs to get used to kicking at Welford Road and kicking under pressure.  The first priority has to be to win and kicking the goals was the way to do that.

Burns missed his first chance to go ahead after a fierce driving maul but just moments later a scrum penalty gave him a second chance which he took.  The coup de grace was applied after a towering Garryowen and a superb chase by Manu Tuilagi.

Tuilagi really was the difference between the two sides, the two times in the first half we gave him the ball in the opposition half we scored.  Manu's injury badly affect us last season, we failed to gain a single try bonus point during his abscence, so Cockrerill will hope to have Hinckley's favourite Samoan fit and firing all season.

Awesome Foursome Line Up For Quins Test

Champions Leicester Tigers travel to Harlequins knowing that a win will secure themselves a place in the play offs for the 10th straight year.  A win will also put Tigers above Northampton and into position for a home semi final, for 48 hours at least.

Despite recording a maximum 5 points in the win against Wasps Richard Cockerill makes 5 changes to his starting XV.  The entire front row swaps over as Marcos Ayerza and Logo Mulipola start at prop with Stankovich and Balmain going onto the bench.  Neil Briggs makes his first start in 3 months as he is preferred to Rob Hawkins as hooker.  Tom Youngs is rested in line with EPS requirements.

In the backs former captain Toby Flood is reunited with Ben Youngs, Anthony Allen and Manu Tuilagi.  The awesome foursome have not played together in almost a year, the last time the quartet all started was against Northampton in last year's victorious play off final against Northampton.  Domestically they have lost only 1 of their 15 games together.

Owen Williams is unlucky to miss out but Cockerill has commented that after 6 straight starts he feels the young player needs to rest and mentally recuperate from some tough atmospheres.

Harlequins have become a bogey side for Tigers.  Quins failed to beat Tigers in 14 straight games from 2003 to 2010; but in the last 6 games the Londoners have won 5.  Tigers sole win was last year's Play Off Semi Final at Welford Road. 

The league meeting earlier this season was scarred with controversy; Julian Salvi received his only ever yellow card for the club on Tigers 2nd penalty of the match and Quins scored two tries, including one ruled fair on the controversial "momentum" interpretation of a forward pass, during those 10 minutes.  The referee that day was Tim Wigglesworth and fresh from his contentious refereeing of the fierce Gloucester-Bath derby the RFU have once again turned a deaf ear to controversy.  

Harlequins tactics of deliberately holding defenders down off the ball was highlighted by BT Sport this week, hopefully Wigglesworth was watching as without a keen eyed referee teams are helpless against the cynicism of the Harlequins machine. 

Harlequins name an unchanged side from the one which secured their own bonus point win away to Sale.  Full Back Mike Brown has been gaining rave reviews for his England performances whilst Nick Evans looked back to his best against the Sharks. 



Leicester
15 Mat Tait
14 Blaine Scully
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Neil Briggs
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Ed Slater (c)
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Jamie Gibson
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Geoff Parling
20 Pablo Matera
21 David Mele
22 Owen Williams
23 Niall Morris
Harlequins
15 Mike Brown
14 Ollie Lindsay-Hague
13 Tim Molenaar
12 Jordan Turner-Hall
11 Sam Smith
10 Nick Evans
9 Danny Care
1 Joe Marler
2 Dave Ward
3 Kyle Sinckler
4 Charlie Matthews
5 George Robson
6 Luke Wallace
7 Chris Robshaw (C)
8 Nick Easter
Replacements
16 Rob Buchanan
17 Mark Lambert
18 Paul Doran Jones
19 Tom Guest
20 Maurie Fa'asavalu
21 Karl Dickson
22 Ben Botica
23 Ross Chisholm

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Touch Judges: Andy Watson & Roy Maybank TMO: Sean Davey

Heavenly Tigers silence Sandy Park crowd

A dominant first 20 minutes was enough for Tigers to see off a spirited final hour from Exeter as they triumphed 21-9 at Sandy Park.  Renowned by some for a terrific atmosphere Sandy Park was a strange cross between a morgue and a library as Tigers had a choke on hold on the game, and even though their grip loosened in the second half they never let go completely.

Tigers started the game terrifically as the heavyweight pack selected by Richard Cockerill acted like a wrecking ball through the Exeter midfield.  Great awareness from Toby Flood spotted occasional full back Phil Dollman out of position and took advantage with a dinked chip for Niall Morris.  He looked to have scored but the T.M.O. ruled that his fumble in the grounding went forwards.  To my eye that went backwards and he was next to ground it for a try.

Tigers went close again as a Jordan Crane looked to free Ben Youngs round the side of a driven maul.  He tripped though and referee Wigglesworth ruled holding on.  The mighty Leicester pack was not to be denied however and it was from a similar move that Ben Youngs squirmed over, this time it was elder brother Tom Youngs who drew the last man.

Flood missed the conversion but atoned with a penalty not too long afterwards.  Tigers’ backline defence was excellent with Blaine Scully’s defence immaculate.  Vereniki Goneva, in his favoured position of outside centre, was particularly quick off the mark and showed an excellent work ethic to get back to the outside if he was beaten.

Typical Tigers to find the Fijian good at all the dull things to go with his magic feet.

Exeter finally arrived in the second quarter as they finally got some ball and field position to use it.  Usually it is the away side you say were “still on the bus” but Exeter’s minds looked elsewhere for long periods of the first half.

Goneva’s never stop work rate was rewarded on the stroke of half time when he pounced on Jason Shoemark’s loose pass to race away under the posts.  Toby Flood converted for a 15-0 half time lead.

Tigers’ mega-sized back five finally tired in the second half.  Ed Slater brings immense physicality around the field and as an option in the lineout he is fantastic, but what you gain in those stakes you lose out on the floor of the ruck.  

With only Julian Salvi as a true flanker Tigers struggled to stem the Chief’s flow in the second half.  Consequently they lost out on possession, territory and the chance to claim the try bonus point.

Tigers were out on their feet for much of the second period and the injection of fresh legs from Kitchener and Gibson helped somewhat to turn the tide back in the Leicester favour.   

2 of the 3 second half penalties from Exeter were simply due to speed of ball and pressure.  The other a fairly bizarre scrum penalty for Tom Youngs standing up, despite the Tigers pack marching forwards at the time.

I look forward to seeing Dylan Hartley penalised off the park next week.

With 70 minutes gone Tigers still had the chance to press for a third try and open up the possibility of the try bonus point.  Tigers were finally getting some ball in the Exeter half and had earned a scrum penalty.  At 9 points up the penalty insured against a two score Exeter come back but a kick to the corner might have opened the game up for an extra point ourselves.

This summed up both sides as neither was really positive enough to take hold of the game in the second half, so Tigers first half stranglehold held firm.

At the end of the match Ben Kay’s man of the match Vereniki Goneva let slip Tigers tactical master plan.  “I’d like to thank the Lord” he said.  With the Almighty as our 16^th man no wonder our defence seemed omnipotent!

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