After 3 wins from the opening 4 rounds of the Premiership Rugby season boss Michael Cheika will be relatively pleased with the position his new charges find themselves in.
Tigers started the season with an important morale boosting win away from home against Exeter, scoring on the final play to set the tone on a new season. After the match Cheika had his first interaction with English rugby union’s rather unique definitions of “disrespect”, where questioning the errors of the match day doctor saw Cheika banned for “disrespect” on the basis of crossing his arms and “staring intensely”.
The following week Tigers welcomed last year’s losing finalists Bath to Welford Road. Leading 10-5 at half time, an extremely poor second half saw Tigers score late then hang on to a losing bonus point as consolation in a 15-20 defeat.
In round 3, a first bonus point win since 2014 at Newcastle’s Kingston Park was secured, but this felt like a no-win game for Tigers as the hapless Falcons have not won for 25 games and 18 months now, but a banana skin was avoided and this was a significant improvement on the dire win there last season.
Last Saturday, Tigers played reigning champions Northampton in the show piece game of the league’s Derby Weekend programme. They served up an intense high quality defensive performance which shut out the champions until after the 80th minute (and had the score mattered the TMO may have taken a firmer view on whether it was in fact correctly grounded).
From the four games Tigers have conceded the least points in the league, and have the best points difference with +46. Attack has been poor though, even with the thrashing of the Falcons we have only scored 14 tries, joint 5th place currently. Last season Tigers’ home form was a major problem, winning only 5 from 9 games and included a last second defeat to this week’s visitors Gloucester.
Gloucester come to Welford Road as almost a mirror image to Tigers. The opening up of the game and emphasis on attack has been a deliberate statement from Gloucester coach George Skivington (50 Leicester appearance, 2010-2012). Their attack has been on fire averaging 32 points a game in the early season; but their defence has been woeful, conceding 41 points-a-week on average including copping 55 points at home to their rivals Bath last weekend. They won a rip-roaring 44-41 ding-dong match against Bristol but suffered defeats to Sale and Saracens in their other two games.
Tigers would probably consider their strengths closer to those of Sale, Saracens and Bath than Bristol, so will be looking to pressure Gloucester into mistakes and dominate their pack up front. Gloucester’s scrummaging has looked particularly suspect so far this season and will be a big target for Nicky Smith, Joe Heyes and Dan Cole to target.
Matches against Gloucester are now played for the Slater Cup, named in honour of former captain of both clubs Ed Slater, who is suffering with Motor Neurone Disease. Ed was born in Leicester to a local family, and grew up in Milton Keynes before his rugby journey took him to Sydney, Australia, only to find himself recommended back to Leicester Tigers by Mike Penistone, a former Tigers academy coach then working in Sydney club rugby. After 136 games in 7 seasons, Slater moved to Gloucester in a rare NFL-style trade for Jonny May. He played 90 times for the Cherry & Whites before his enforced retirement due to the diagnosis of MND in 2022.
Gloucester’s win at Welford Road last season was their first Slater Cup win, and Tigers will be determined to win the trophy back this Sunday at the first time of asking.
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Tickets are on sale via the Leicester Tigers website, and the match will also be broadcast live on ITV4. Coverage starts at 2:30pm in advance of a 3pm kick off.
Words by Stuart Keene.
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