Every summer there are changes in rugby union. Some years it’s just a few players, other years it’s half the rule book (only pub bores insist on calling them laws). This summer Tigers find themselves in a middle ground with low squad turnover but almost an entirely new coaching team. And I can’t deny being excited about it.
After Steve Borthwick’s mid-season decamp to England, he decided to push the boat out and recruit four out of Tigers’ six main assistant coaches for his England staff. Good luck in France, I guess.
Tigers have responded by appointing their new coaching team with an exciting mix of talents.
The New Coaching Team
The headline is the new Head Coach. Australian Dan McKellar joins from the Australian national team where he was Forwards Coach. McKellar was a jobbing prop as a player spending four years playing for Wicklow in the All Ireland League, before starting his coaching career in his native Queensland. He coached in Japan before returning to Australia in 2014 with the ACT Brumbies, the club of Pat Howard, Eddie Jones, Rod Kafer & Lachlan McCaffrey among other Leicester connections. Initially the Forwards Coach he became Head Coach in 2018. He led the Brumbies to the play offs in the 2019,’20,’21 & ’22 seasons, capturing the one off “Super Rugby AU” title in 2020.
McKellar joins with a reputation for a strong driving maul & comes from the only Australian team to be even remotely competitive in Super Rugby in his five years in charge. Reasonable expectations are for a fast start.
Coming with him from Australia is his scrum coach Dan Palmer, currently with the Wallabies as lineout coach he will only arrive after the World Cup finishes in October. Palmer is a young coach, younger than Dan Cole by 16 months at only 34. He is highly rated for his work with the Brumbies scrum. In 2020 he came out as gay, the first gay Wallaby, and by my reckoning he will be the first openly gay coach in European Rugby.
Alan Dickens joins as Tigers new attack coach; the former Saracens & Northampton player shouldn’t have that held against him as the Merseyside native has been coaching the England Under 20s team for the past four seasons.
The final new addition to the coaching team is Ollie Richardson as Strength & Conditioning Coach, he replaces the effervescent Aled Walters in the role and will need to bring the same sense of fun alongside the necessary hard work. Richardson worked with Tigers before from 2005 to 2011 before a well-travelled career that has led him from Leicester to Australia, twice to Japan with the Kubota Spears Funabashi then the delightfully named Kurita Water Gush, before the contrasts of Huddersfield Giants in Rugby League and New York Ironworkers in Major League Rugby. And you thought English team names were weird.
The hold overs from the previous regime are all born and bred Leicester men in Matt Smith (Skills & academy), Brett Deacon (Forwards & breakdown) and the more recently appointed Matt Everard (defence). All will be looking to bring that important blend of the cliched “Tigers DNA” alongside the new ideas of McKellar et al.
The Playing Squad
On the playing side the squad is relatively settled. 20 of the 23 which played Sale in the Play Off semi-final return for this season, bringing more stability to the starting side than we have managed in many years.
That does presume that Anthony Watson, who was well advertised as being out of contract has stayed, but with no announcement by anyone & all other leavers having now left it appears he has indeed stayed.
The new signings are headlined by winger Ollie Hassell-Collins who joins from London Irish. A bigger physical presence than often given credit for he has scored 20 tries in 35 games over the past two Premiership seasons. He will replace the outgoing Harry Potter who has surprisingly returned to Australia in the close season.
Further strengthening of the outside backs comes with Josh Bassett, the prolific winger joins from Harlequins after spending many years with Wasps in Coventry, and fullback Jamie Shillcock, who has ruined many days for Tigers while at Worcester then Bath. Shillcock will provide good competition & cover for Freddie Steward who may feature on the wing more with Shillcock now on board.
In the forwards Tigers have mainly retained their existing pack, but have added two good squad options in former London Irish captain Matt Rogerson, who was recently in Borthwick’s wider World Cup training squad, & La Rochelle’s Kyle Hatherall. Both players are similar; large, direct & no-nonsense blindside flankers and number 8s. That should allow George Martin to focus full time on the second row, when he is not with England as many suspect he will now be more often.
Looking Ahead
Tigers are vocal about having a culture of “no transition seasons” and that will be put to the test. There has been sizeable disruption with England taking almost the entire coaching staff but the replacements are experienced & talented while the playing squad is largely unaffected. The squad arguably even stronger than last year.
Tigers fans should be optimistic about another tilt at the Premiership title in the play offs, though luck with injuries often decides where the trophy goes.
In Europe we have drawn the toughest pool possible, and that is not hyperbole. We face Leinster & La Rochelle, who contested the last two finals; plus “The Stormers” from Cape Town, South Africa, who won their league in 2022 & reached the final in 2023; and finally, Stade Français Paris who finished 4th in the Top 14. Let’s just gloss over for now why a South African side is in the European Cup. Tigers face The Stormers & Leinster at Welford Road while travelling twice to France for the other games. Ironically drawing Leinster in the pools may mean avoiding them in the quarter-final, where they have knocked us out each of the last two seasons. So depending on whether you want to tilt from optimistic to positively barmy, or not, there is a case to be made the draw has increased our chances of adding a third European title to our collection.
Words by Stuart Keene
Are you a big Leicester City or Leicester Tigers fan who would be interested in writing for Cool As Leicester next season? Get in touch with us on [email protected].