Matt O'Connor has left Leicester Tigers

[Tigersman]

Jim Mallinder and Dorian West.

According to Neil Fissler on Twitter they were at the Premiership shield game....

Fissler even says he is fishing in the replies.
Mallinder will be watching Harry and West lives in the area, Mike Ford and Graham Rowntree also where there

[pandion]

Edwards? He'd be an interesting fit with Bakewell.

[Tigersman]

Is ben Ryan still without a club?

[Scrumhead]

I couldn't stomach Lancaster at Tigers.

I have my list, just not sure the BOD do.
DOR wise
Gatland (With Rowntree maybe coming in as well)
Venter
Haig
Are potentially realistic and I think would be able to work with most of the coaches as is.

Head coach wise should Murphy not be up to it yet.
Gibson
Wessels
de Bruin
Mitchell
Vesty
O'Gara

Venter is a good shout. I’m not sure Vesty or O’Gara are ready to be considered head coach material yet.

Digby criticises me for suggesting Murphy is an experienced coach and both of the above have less experience than he does.

Ben Ryan is a good shout for head coach.

[Tigersman]

I couldn't stomach Lancaster at Tigers.

I have my list, just not sure the BOD do.
DOR wise
Gatland (With Rowntree maybe coming in as well)
Venter
Haig
Are potentially realistic and I think would be able to work with most of the coaches as is.

Head coach wise should Murphy not be up to it yet.
Gibson
Wessels
de Bruin
Mitchell
Vesty
O'Gara

Venter is a good shout. I’m not sure Vesty or O’Gara are ready to be considered head coach material yet.

Digby criticises me for suggesting Murphy is an experienced coach and both of the above have less experience than he does.

Ben Ryan is a good shout for head coach.

I don't mind much experience I think it's about balance.
Like Cullen is inexperienced but Lancaster adds that experience for him.

[Puja]

I couldn't stomach Lancaster at Tigers.

I have my list, just not sure the BOD do.
DOR wise
Gatland (With Rowntree maybe coming in as well)
Venter
Haig
Are potentially realistic and I think would be able to work with most of the coaches as is.

Head coach wise should Murphy not be up to it yet.
Gibson
Wessels
de Bruin
Mitchell
Vesty
O'Gara

Venter is a good shout. I’m not sure Vesty or O’Gara are ready to be considered head coach material yet.

Digby criticises me for suggesting Murphy is an experienced coach and both of the above have less experience than he does.

Ben Ryan is a good shout for head coach.

What experience does Ben Ryan have in this sport?

Puja

[Digby]

I wouldn't consider Lancaster experienced, Ben Ryan is a shot in the dark, but I'd be interested in seeing either

To start what's the aim, are new signings envisaged, how important is entertaining rugby, how key is the academy, the development of players and coaches?

[Stom]

I do think Lancaster could be a good option, potentially as a head coach, though. Would be interesting to see who steps up and who doesn't. And as we know Leicester like to keep things in the family, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone from their past lining up again. Wouldn't be surprised to see Rowntree, Johnson, Brad Thorn pop up in conversation.

[Oakboy]

There have been quite a few comments that the playing squad is of a high standard. Is that really true compared with Saracens and Exeter, currently, or, say, the Leicester of 10 years back?

The pack, a traditional Leicester strength, looks unlikely to outplay any of their serious rivals. The backs look characterless or injury-prone.

Maybe, a change in coaching regime could get more out of the same players but I doubt that top-level performances are achievable on a sustained basis without new faces.

[Stom]

There have been quite a few comments that the playing squad is of a high standard. Is that really true compared with Saracens and Exeter, currently, or, say, the Leicester of 10 years back?

The pack, a traditional Leicester strength, looks unlikely to outplay any of their serious rivals. The backs look characterless or injury-prone.

Maybe, a change in coaching regime could get more out of the same players but I doubt that top-level performances are achievable on a sustained basis without new faces.

The pack is underperforming. It's not terrible. It's not close to Exe or Sarries in the backrow, but I'd say the tight 5 are not far off. Well, far off Exe, Sarries have something of an insane unit there and I don't think anyone else can (legally) manage close to that.

[Puja]

There have been quite a few comments that the playing squad is of a high standard. Is that really true compared with Saracens and Exeter, currently, or, say, the Leicester of 10 years back?

The pack, a traditional Leicester strength, looks unlikely to outplay any of their serious rivals. The backs look characterless or injury-prone.

Maybe, a change in coaching regime could get more out of the same players but I doubt that top-level performances are achievable on a sustained basis without new faces.

Compared with Sarries, no. But if you look at Hepburn, LCD, Williams, Hill, Skinner, Armand, Kvesic, Simmonds, you wouldn't say they were a drastic amount better man-for-man than Genge, Youngs, Cole, Kitchener, Spencer, Kalamafoni, O'Connor/Thompson, Denton.

I certainly wouldn't say our squad is the best in the league or even close to that, but I would back a good coach to make a half-decent side out of the players we have available to us. That squad should be top 3 Prem and quarter finals of Europe, not scrapping to qualify for the top 6 and being a 5 point gimme for the big European sides.

Puja

[Raggs]

Not sure it should be top 3 prem, Top 5 with realistic top 4 ambitions sort of squad I'd think. Apart from Exeter and Sarries, I'd say that Wasps, Leicester and Glaws are the rest, with the likes of Falcons, Quins, Saints and Bath all competing to make a mess of that, with Sale too.

[fivepointer]

Tigers 1st XV are pretty good but below that there isnt much depth (who is 2nd choice THP for instance?)
Several clubs have better squads, notably Saracens and Exeter, who really stand out.
Leicester is a big club and should be doing better.

[Scrumhead]

There have been quite a few comments that the playing squad is of a high standard. Is that really true compared with Saracens and Exeter, currently, or, say, the Leicester of 10 years back?

The pack, a traditional Leicester strength, looks unlikely to outplay any of their serious rivals. The backs look characterless or injury-prone.

Maybe, a change in coaching regime could get more out of the same players but I doubt that top-level performances are achievable on a sustained basis without new faces.

Compared with Sarries, no. But if you look at Hepburn, LCD, Williams, Hill, Skinner, Armand, Kvesic, Simmonds, you wouldn't say they were a drastic amount better man-for-man than Genge, Youngs, Cole, Kitchener, Spencer, Kalamafoni, O'Connor/Thompson, Denton.

I certainly wouldn't say our squad is the best in the league or even close to that, but I would back a good coach to make a half-decent side out of the players we have available to us. That squad should be top 3 Prem and quarter finals of Europe, not scrapping to qualify for the top 6 and being a 5 point gimme for the big European sides.

Puja

Top 3 might be overly ambitious (I think Saracens, Exeter and Wasps are stronger) but certainly a contender for 4th.

You’ve called out the pack there, but let’s not forget that Tigers have three England starters in the backs (Youngs, Ford and May) along with two players with strong claims to be the best in the league at 12 (Toomua) and 15 (Veainu). Tuilagi is currently nowhere near the force he once was, but he’s still a handy player and Thompstone and Holmes are decent Premiership wingers. Eastmond is a quality player regardless of whether he’s starting or a. option on the bench.

Depth is an issue, but that’s something you’d expect a decent coach to rectify relatively simply.

[Oakboy]

. . . but let’s not forget that Tigers have three England starters in the backs (Youngs, Ford and May) along with two players with strong claims to be the best in the league at 12 (Toomua) and 15 (Veainu). Tuilagi . . . .

Slightly tongue in cheek, would I be so wrong to suggest that, of those, only May is NOT riding on reputation? To even float that thought about any Leicester players 10 years back would have been unthinkable.

[Scrumhead]

Right now, no. That’s probably fair, but they haven’t become sub standard players overnight.

[Tigersman]

First two players in each position for me
1. Genge, Bateman
2. TPN, Youngs
3. Cole, Faeo
4. Spencer, Wells
5. Kitchener, Fitzgerald
6. Denton, Williams
7. O'Connor, Evans
8. Thompson, Kalamafoni

9. Youngs, Harrison
10. Ford, Hardwick
11. May, Aspland-Robinson
12. Toomua, Eastmond
13. Manu, Owen
14. Thompstone, Holmes
15. Veainu, Olowofela

It isn't a crap group of players TBH.

The scrum is still one of the best in the leagues, and it handled Exeter pretty well especially considering that that they hardly played together in pre-season.

Locks need investing in more, and whilst Faeo looked solid he was very unfit (Not only one though).

We have some very good players U21 players coming up thinking of.
1. Grahamslaw
2. Kerr
3. Heyes
4. Jordan
5. Martin
6. Lavin
7. Reffell
8. Smith
9. Simmons
10. Hardwick
11. Olowofela
12. Worth
13. Dunn
14. Aspland-Robinson
15. Steward
16. Mahoney
17. Lines (With Rowntree also coming through)
18. Whitecombe (With Hardwick coming through)
19. Lewis
20. Gough
21. White
22. Costelow
23. Phoenix

Need a coach that can balance the two correctly, something that hasn't been done for a while.

Could do with hiring a coach that can bring in some key big name players at lock, 12 and 13 really. Something like Ackermann has done.

[Oakboy]

It just makes me wonder if the players are the right sort, character-wise. From the apparent low base is there just too much for a head coach to turn around without a clear-out. At the very least, it's going to be interesting to watch Murphy try.

[Tigersman]

Smurph isn't subtle is he.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/45411381

[Which Tyler]

First two players in each position for me

Don't make me break out the spreadsheets!

[Tigersman]

Basically by the way it was worded was.

Club had a top to bottom review end of season.
Gave MOC recommendations to do pre-season
MOC didn’t use those recommendations
It didn’t work out for MOC
Club took action

[Tigersman]

Interesting Murphy saying Cole shouldn’t have been left on for as long as he was, also that the main reason we looked so unfit was becuase of the amount of kicking and giving away ball there was.

[Mellsblue]

What a shambles. I hope Murphy can turn it round.

[Tigersman]

Hearing Murphy speak I think he could well do so. Got the impression Murphy wasn’t really allowed to coach the backs under MOC and had to focus on the D squad.

Think if Tigers could try to bring in a Venter/Smith type figure someone who can just give him advice and guidance.

Up top still needs sorting out.

[Epaminondas Pules]

I hope SMurph gets a proper chance. I'd also jump quick and get Flecth and Rusty signed up in some guise now that England have dispensed of them. Or rather Dean Ryan did, and then also tried to do with Richard Hill too!!