The Rugby Debate: Sacking Matt O'Connor is not the solution for Leicester Tigers

Leicester Tigers
Leicester were hammered 39-0 by Castres on Sunday Credit: AFP

There is something profoundly odd about the fact that we are now in 2018 and Leicester, who historically have boasted one of the greatest packs on the continent, still remain without a forwards coach.

Richard Blaze left his role last September, resigning just a few weeks into the season. No interim replacement has been found. No forwards coach... at Leicester of all places.

The word back then was that Brett Deacon, a development coach, would help out with the lineout until a suitable replacement was found.

On the wait goes, with the club sliding in the Premiership and now having lost seven of their last eight matches in all competitions.

The pack was the fulcrum around which Leicester built their dynasty between 1999 and 2013, when the club won eight Premiership titles and two European Cups.

Leicester's lineout is the fourth-worst in the Premiership (86 percent success rate) and while their scrum is competitive, six sides in the league have a better success percentage. Ed Slater, their former lock now at the heart of Gloucester's rise, is sorely missed.

Leicester Tigers
Leicester's pack is not the elite unit of old Credit: CAMERASPORT

This recent losing run has led to calls for Matt O'Connor to be sacked. The Australian only re-joined the club in March last year following Richard Cockerill's departure but for Leicester supporters frustrated (understandably) by the club's decline, O'Connor, a backs coach, has been the obvious punching bag.

Except that kind of short-term thinking to sack O'Connor will only leave Leicester in the middle of another rebuild, scouring the globe for a new head coach at a time when Super Rugby is about to start and the game's top coaching talents both there and in Europe are under contract.

O'Connor is also yet to truly put a stamp on this Leicester side given he arrived once most of the club's recruitment for 2017/2018 was complete - the surprise exits of Peter Betham and JP Pietersen last summer underlining that O'Connor was not happy with the players available.

That points the finger at the club's board, not O'Connor, given the signings that have been made in recent years, a failure by the club's top brass laid bare by the fact that Leicester's reserves were thrashed 39-0 on Sunday.

Sending a second-string side to Castres, even with the grim outcome, made sense given Leicester's status after four rounds and with the likes of Ben Youngs and George Ford benefiting from a week off.

Youngsters in Harry Wells, Will Evans and both Harry and Charlie Thacker are all promising prospects too, especially Wells at lock. The Stade Pierre-Fabre is a notoriously difficult place to visit even with a first-choice side.

Sacking O'Connor however is not the answer when Leicester's main issues preceded his arrival.

Richard Cockerill was dismissed shortly over a year ago with Leicester fifth in the Premiership but crashing out of Europe in a fireball. One year later, Leicester are eighth with their European hopes dead and buried. The mid-season jolt failed.

Find a forwards coach, allow O'Connor to shape the squad in his image with better recruitment and give the young guns a go. Accepting that the club is in transition, even with as glorified a past as Leicester, is the first step to a revival.

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