First of all, Happy New Year! Hope you had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year.
Leicester Tigers certainly had a good time of things, beating Connacht at home in the run up, before beating Bristol away on Boxing Day in the most dramatic of fashions, thanks to Guy Porter’s sensational last minute winning try. The festive period was brought to a winning fashion with Leicester’s 31-0 home victory against Newcastle Falcons, battling both the wind and rain, as well as keeping Carl Fearns quiet in the process. Fearns was actually one of the impressive performers; after all that chat on social media, backing it up with a 2/10 performance on the pitch, getting hooked after 50 minutes in the process, when it actually matters, was a masterful display of making yourself look a prize clown.
This is not a blog about the salary cap allegations which dominated the build up to the Newcastle game; that has been covered in expert fashion by my Rolling Maul podcast colleague Mike, who has put together a brilliant thread on Twitter (below). There he is looking at all we know and what we think we can piece together using the available evidence. Instead, with both Ellis Genge leaving and the overall salary cap itself, it has shown the next challenges for Tigers and Steve Borthwick – putting together and maintaining a top quality squad for next season, whilst with a reduced salary cap. How do you do it? Well I’m going to look at what we may do as a result.
The first thing is to acknowledge the facts – the salary cap is being reduced to just over £5m, a pretty sizable reduction from its current levels. It also sees a reduction in the number of allowed marquee players from 2 to 1. In Tigers’ case, this is taken care of. Genge leaving for Bristol, with Ford leaving and being replaced by Handre Pollard completes this area of the squad.
As a result, finding a suitable replacement for Genge, matching both his leadership and overall playing qualities is going to be a pretty tough task. Especially with Tigers probably needing to lower their playing squad accordingly to meet the lower cap – the reduction will not be met through negotiating lower salaries alone, reducing the number of players will also be required.
Further challenges are provided by the make up of the rest of the squad. Here’s Leicester’s strength over the last 12-18 months is now about to become a possible problem for us. The club has done superbly well in bringing through so many promising young players, to the extent that they are no longer just youngsters, to be used as back up. Instead they are all fully fledged and integral members of the first team squad. The names are too many to mention, but we know who they are. Whitcombe, Martin, Chessum, JVP, Kelly, Steward to name but a few. They are all now at the stage where they can no longer be paid junior wages, they can and are justified in commanding salaries to match their first team status. In the case of Steward, he could probably name his price given how he has booked himself an England career for the next 10-15 years.
It is not just the youngsters that have come through the academy that need salary uplifts. This season’s success stories such as Nic Dolly, Harry Potter and Guy Porter are also in the same boat. No longer can they be classified as junior members of the squad. Like those names mentioned above, they are fully fledged members of the first team squad, and deserve paying in the same way. Cam Henderson, whilst injured currently is another that the club no doubt will want to keep hold of, given he was knocking on Scotland’s door prior to his unfortunate injury.
So how do Leicester go about meeting this squad management conundrum? Well the first strategy for me, is to build a squad that lasts for the next 5-10 years, and for me that involves building around all those academy youngsters that we now know and see in the first team squad, as well as the likes of Nic Dolly, Potter and Porter, as a priority. All these players are under the age of 24 more or less, which means the club would be benefitting from the best years of their career if they look after them properly. Keeping the core of your squad being lads who have either grown up through the club, or have come into the system and developed with us and have an affinity with the club as a result, makes life so much easier to managing both the squad and the salary cap issues. We already know that these players are good enough. We also know they cover pretty much all positions across the board, meaning you do have a genuine core that runs through the squad. This then allows the club to build around them, and add in players a lot easier. Make these players our priority, then our next 10 years is sorted in my opinion.
The next strategy for me is to have a solid core of more experienced pro’s that run alongside such a talented core. This for me includes the likes of Wells, Clare, Green and Scott. Whilst not flashy or headline grabbers, boy can they play rugby well and hard, as well as giving everything to the cause. These players lead by example and help drive the standards across the club and make sure everyone keeps to the required levels. They also do not mind if they are on the bench or not picked, and will always give 100% for the club no matter what. By adding these to your core of talented youngsters, it means both the club’s future in the short term and long-term can be covered. Short term as they still contribute to us now, as well as help bring on the younger players in their development over a longer term.
The final cog for building this squad in my books, is adding top quality internationals. Already we are seeing this in our recruitment with the likes of Wiese, Montoya and Moroni all adding their class and expertise in how they play. Combine that with the likes of Ben Youngs and the incoming Handre Pollard and suddenly you have a squad that is capable of playing on the big stage and in the bigger games that we want to be involved in.
So how do we trim our numbers? Well unfortunately there are a fair few players who I feel will not be with us next season. I think our strategy will be to run our first team squad with lower numbers overall, but maximise the versatility that a lot of these players bring, with many being able to cover multiple positions. I think the club will then use our academy and development players to fill in positions as and when injuries and suspensions arise.
Looking at who could leave the club, well there’s a few obvious candidates given the lack of game time seen. Olawofela, Aspland-Robinson and Simmonds for example have barely played ever since Borthwick came in, and have been out on loan for the majority of the last 18 months, so it makes sense that they are set to leave in the summer. The likes of Jaco Taute and Wigglesworth for differing reasons are also likely to retire again freeing up their salary. Genge leaving and now Brink too, take with them a fair chunk of salary. The likes of Kobus Van Wyk who came from the Hurricanes and Super Rugby is also vulnerable as no doubt his salary is fairly substantial versus his lack of game time. Throw in the likes of Francois Van Wyk and Soccino, who also have not had much game time this season, and easily you can see those 8-10 players mentioned above leaving to try and bring the club under the lower threshold.
From there I can see the club operating a much reduced recruitment drive this summer, with more outgoings that incomings. Arguably the club does not need to deliver much in new recruitment; as stated the squad itself looks highly balanced and packed through with quality already. Instead I can see more of the likes of the recruitment such as Tomiwa Agbongbon – low risk, high potential and with bucket loads of enthusiasm to learn and get better. Already from the small exposure he has had already, he looks a promising and exciting youngster.
The club, I can also see operating a 1 out, 1 in approach. No new additions, unless someone from the “core group” leaves. For example, if Nephi gets a tempting offer from France that we cannot match.
Overall, this season, we have seen circa 30-32 names feature on a consistent basis which I think will become that “core group” that will take this club forward, built around those talented youngsters that have the potential to be mainstays for the next 10 years. This also allow the club to bring through new youngsters to help replenish the depth and make sure any gaps are filled. Expect to see more of the likes of Bryce Hegarty type signings who can cover multiple positions easily, but still being a quality players. Tigers do face challenges with their squad management, but they do look well equipped to be able to deal with those moving forward.