The famous ABC club is written into the minds of many a rugby supporter from Welford Road to Wellington, but these players are long gone, and instead, the path they laid is being walked by a new crop of young talented players.
Leicester Tigers’ 2022-23 season was a rollercoaster ride worthy of Alton Towers. The mid-season loss of coaches and players clearly hampered Tigers but it didn’t stop them from delivering brilliant moments and giving hope to fans for the next season. To delve into how they did this, you need to understand how Tigers play as well as how they can benefit from their crop of younger players.
Tigers playing style
Attacking Style
Leicester Tigers’ game plan is relatively simple and you can see the heritage of the ABC club in the roots of the team’s style and identity.
In attack, Tigers use box kicking very effectively. Stylistically they remind me a lot of Sale Sharks, Ulster and La Rochelle, but these teams are further along their development than Tigers are. Jack van Poortvliet is so important to Leicester and how they play as Tigers use his accurate box kicking to allow chasers Freddie Steward and Tommy Reffell to win the ball back by forcing mistakes such as dropped balls or jackal opportunities. You notice the difference when van Poortvliet is missing as Ben Youngs’ box kicking is a little less accurate, making the chaser’s job harder and thus, Leicester can’t turn the ball over as easily. Of course van Poortvliet is now set to miss the World Cup through injury and requiring surgery, let’s hope we get him back in one piece soon.
For Tigers, Pollard’s kicking is also hugely important to their strategy as he is one of the best-kicking fly halves in the game, causing mistakes from teams the same way van Poortvliet does. Using lineouts and scrums, they look to force an opposition penalty to get further upfield into range for their maul to cause devastation as it frequently does. You can see the effect of this as club captain, Julian Montoya, was the top try scorer for the club in the Premiership last season.
When playing on ball, Tigers look to roll across the defence using heavy carriers such as Chessum, Henderson, Martin and Weise to dominate collisions and force the defence backwards. They keep a hold of the ball for extended periods through this short passing as their forward-play has limited intricate work. When going wider from tight forward play, Handre Pollard’s absence was really noticeable against Sale and at the start of the season. Pollard has the passing and carrying ability to help Tigers move to a wider attack and use explosive carriers in wider positions to force mismatches and generate linebreaks. This next season I see Dan Kelly taking an increased role as a secondary playmaker, similar to his role against Sale. He can stretch Tigers’ attack and cause problems with players like Martin and Weise running off him as he offers a carrying and passing threat.
Defensive Style
Defensively Tigers make for a fun watch. They dominate the breakdown area with Reffell, Montoya, and Jasper Weise targeting jackal opportunities. Reffell is so crucial to Tigers defence with his breakdown work, but his lateral speed in defence is pivotal to Tigers’ large pack build not getting isolated in wider channels. His ability to cover from the base of the maul adds to this. In defence is where he shows why he is a Welsh international and deserves a spot on the plane to France. Another key player to Tigers’ defensive system is Cam Henderson. The young Scottish lock adds so much power to the defensive line and his ability to stop attackers dead allows Montoya and Reffell those poaching opportunities that make Tigers’ tight defence so formidable.
Their wide defence is the area that I think needs the most work. The backs defensive system relies on the wingers shooting out to make stops in the wide channels and the outside centre, Guy Porter, or anyone else in the 13 shirt to cover across and make tackles. Often this makes Porter look great in defence as he makes plenty of tackles in open field, but it’s often due to defensive failures from wingers shooting up. This is not a serious flaw as this improvement comes from consistent selection and game time for wingers, which was not always the case last season. I would like to see this defensive load shift to Porter as I think he could develop into a dominant defensive outside centre.
Weaknesses
Of course there are still some weaknesses in Tigers’ game plan. To play on ball they need a big pack but this causes them problems against teams that use long kicking and teams that make lots of passes in one phase. These flaws were the causes of their exits in both the European Cup and the Premiership Semi-Final. Both Sale and Leinster pass a lot before contact, frequently going deep into the second layer of attack to hurt teams, and this caused problems for Tigers as their big pack got caught out on extended phases that stretched them across the pitch. It left their heavier players exposed and targeted by high-pass attacks. This coming season, Guy Porter looks to be best equipped to help this as his athleticism and size could be used to stop attacks progressing too far in that second layer, especially with the bigger centre Dan Kelly on his inside.
The other main weakness is in the attack. Often their attack looks limited, static and one-dimensional once it gets outside Pollard. Kelly doesn’t look overly comfortable ball in hand and Porter and Matt Scott don’t have an overly developed offloading game, meaning their wingers look isolated. This coming season this could be improved with an increased load on Kelly as a secondary playmaker, as he has the size and athleticism to challenge defences. His passing range combined with Charlie Atkinson, who for the first few weeks of the season should be “the guy” at 10, could see Tigers’ attack really develop and cause some real problems for teams when going wide, especially with the new signing winger Ollie Hassell-Collins.
Young players to look out for
Cam Henderson looks to be a perfect fit for a heavy lock with good maul defence and explosive carrying. His clearouts can be sloppy at times, but once he improves his ruck efficiency he could take his game to the next level.
Charlie Atkinson’s development over the pre-season running training as “the guy” at 10 means he has the opportunity to show how good he is to Tigers coaching staff. His athleticism, varied kicking game and medium-range passing could mean he’s the perfect type of 10 to take Tigers’ attack to that next level. This season could be similar to the season just had by Munster’s Jack Crowley.
Dan Kelly and Guy Porter’s development together is crucial to Tigers’ attack gaining that extra gear. If Kelly can improve his threat as a secondary playmaker, he looks to be a great player and one who England would definitely use. Porter’s short offloading game which has not been utilised could open up the game between the 5m and 15m lines and bring dangerous wingers such as Hassell-Collins into the game.
Honourable mentions go to George Martin and Joe Heyes, whose power will be so important to Tigers’ tight game, especially with Martin’s athleticism aiding the short kick chases and hinge defence. However, I’d say the wider attacking game is definitely the area that needs the most improvement this next season.
Words by Francis Cullinane.
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