Signings such as Waisea Nayacalevu, Nicky Smith and Ross Molony may well prove to be influential on the pitch this season, but there can be no doubt over the Premiership’s headline addition ahead of the new campaign.
Michael Cheika is one of the most intriguing characters in rugby. Charismatic and combative, the multilingual, multitasking Australian joined Leicester Tigers in June upon the exit of Dan McKellar and boasts a CV crowded with accomplishments.
In interviews over the summer, Cheika has spoken about how coaching appointments should be “three-dimensional”; placing the right person into the right role at the right time. In that respect, his arrival at Leicester is box-office.
Cheika has become the eighth Tigers figurehead – including caretakers and interim head coaches – in just over seven years since Richard Cockerill departed in 2017. Renowned as a forthright fixer, he is at the helm of an unapologetically ambitious club with expectant supporters smarting from a season of underachievement. It is a fascinating blend.
Any new coach must complete an audit to assess their resources and exactly what they are walking into. Cheika would not have seen most of his squad in a live game until Leicester’s first friendly against Nottingham on August 30.
Wholesale upheaval is not necessary. Though last season’s eighth-place finish was deserved, margins were small. Tigers finished 2023-24 with some decent metrics. Under the guidance of defence coach Matt Everard, they only conceded 51 tries across 18 league games. That put them alongside fourth-placed Sale Sharks as the most miserly team.
Sale, incidentally, also matched Leicester for tries scored (55) over the regular season. Only Gloucester (54) and Newcastle Falcons (30) were blunter.
Leicester’s productivity in the opposition 22 dropped from 2.84 points per visit across 2022-23 (fourth in the league) to 2.37 (seventh in the league) last season. Conditioning has been another major concern, with three late lapses particularly damaging.
Having hauled their way back into play-off contention by ousting Harlequins on the road in round 12, Tigers conceded a 77th-minute Stephen Varney try to lose to Gloucester at home. While they held off Newcastle a week later, two capitulations followed. In touch at just 18-17 down, Leicester collapsed on the back of Solomone Kata’s red card and copped a 40-17 thrashing by Northampton. Even more spectacularly, they threw away a 19-0 advantage in the final 11 minutes to hand Bristol Bears a 21-19 win.
Succeeding Aled Walters proved difficult and Ollie Richardson, the head of physical performance, left after a year. Matt Parr, a familiar face, was recruited in his place. The pillars of success in the Steve Borthwick era were intensity, accuracy and clarity, underpinned by impressive fitness and fight.
Cheika should have a sturdy set-piece foundation. Neil Fowkes, an experienced operator, was a ready-made replacement for Dan Palmer as scrum coach. Nicky Smith, acquired from Ospreys, is an excellent loosehead prop. Tigers averaged 1.4 penalties per game on their own put-in last season (fourth in the league) and won 92.7 per cent of their own ball (second in the league). Their average of 16 maul metres per match was the highest in the Premiership.
Perhaps Cheika’s biggest job is to re-establish a collective philosophy, or a ‘game model’, to use modern jargon. It is understood that players grew weary of McKellar’s leadership style and lack of authority in meetings. Borthwick and Richard Wigglesworth had more clout.
Back in 2014, as the Waratahs were on the road to Super Rugby glory, Cheika presented each of his players with a golf club to reinforce the message that they should swing hard. Thematic storytelling is a key skill in coaching, and Tigers are turning the page.
Cheika’s tactical outlook on the sport has evolved. That will happen when you have overseen teams in Australia, Argentina, France, Ireland, Italy and Japan. His Waratahs and Wallabies were renowned for slick passing. Even nine years on, this compilation of tries from the 2015 World Cup, where Australia had ball-players such as Kurtley Beale, Quade Cooper, Bernard Foley, Matt Giteau and Matt To’omua, is spellbinding:
Without ignoring that David Pocock’s scavenging was a huge factor in that tournament, Cheika has leant more on defensive steel and breakdown disruption in recent years. Victories for Argentina over New Zealand in 2020 and 2022 were inspired by the poaching of Pablo Matera and Julián Montoya – Tigers past and present. In Tommy Reffell, Leicester have a supreme jackaler.
When the Pumas edged out England 30-29 at Twickenham two years ago, snapping Cheika’s streak of seven defeats by Eddie Jones, they only recorded 39 rucks in possession and kicked 30 times.
Cheika’s relationship with kicking is another subplot of this move. After his Wallabies had been bundled out of the 2019 World Cup by England, losing 40-16, an emotional Cheika was asked whether Australia had been tactically clumsy. They had kicked just 15 times in the game, compared to England’s tally of 20.
“Listen, that’s the way we play footy,” Cheika said. “I’m not going to go to a kick-and-defend game. Maybe call me naive, that’s not what I’m going to do. That’s the way Aussies want us to play.”
Territorial pressure was Borthwick’s method and, according to Stats Perform, Leicester have averaged around 34 kicks out of hand per 80 minutes across the past two Premiership campaigns, the highest of any club. Their average tally of running metres per game in the Premiership last season, 353m, was the second lowest.
Notwithstanding how Cheika has broadened his perspective, change could be afoot. Forwards coach Brett Deacon has hinted at “a variation on kick-pass-run” this summer. Peter Hewat, the attack coach, has voiced a desire to “add layers to unstructured play” as well. One thing to watch out for is a 1-3-3-1 formation of forwards, which Cheika has implemented in different jobs. This is essentially a means of filling the field in pods while a team has the ball to ensure width.
Take this potential pack:
1. Nicky Smith (NS)
2. Julián Montoya (JM)
3. Dan Cole (DC)
4. Ollie Chessum (OC)
5. George Martin (GM)
6. Hanro Liebenberg (HL)
7. Tommy Reffell (TR)
8. Kyle Hatherell (KH)
The forwards could spread themselves like this:
Clearly, there is scope for tweaks, both within the three-man pods and for the men out wide, but Reffell relishes the edge role, as this try against Exeter Chiefs demonstrates:
Chessum can be devastating when he stretches his legs, as when he loped away from Samoa a year ago:
Liebenberg could also hold width and Cameron Henderson, another athletic back-five forward, would suit this set-up as well. Having lost a keynote carrier in Jasper Wiese, Tigers will have to be cuter. Mike Brown has gushed about the detail Cheika has brought, with the head coach declaring: “I want to be good at all the things that maybe people don’t see the first time they watch a game.”
Tenacity and technical precision at the breakdown, as well as intent on the ball, often shapes the battle between the 10-metre lines. Otherwise, expect Leicester to kick long to earn counter-attacking opportunities, from which they can click into 1-3-3-1 shape.
A change of head coach can flip fortunes for players who were sidelined by previous regimes. Tigers boast firepower out wide in the shape of Ollie Hassell-Collins, Anthony Watson and even academy youngster Malelili Satala. Will Wand, flitting between the midfield and wing, has impressed in pre-season. Those are all assets worth feeding. They have two tackle-busting centres in Kata and Izaia Perese, but will need to think about distribution skills in their back line.
Last season, McKellar shoehorned Jamie Shillcock onto the wing to keep Freddie Steward at full-back. Dan Kelly would appear to be important as an auxiliary playmaker from inside centre, especially as Handré Pollard is away with South Africa and Shillcock suffered an injury in pre-season against Nottingham. Cheika has drafted in Ben Volavola, the former Fiji international, to cover at 10 and Joe Woodward, the ex-England U20 inside centre, has run at fly-half in training.
Exeter’s ultra-aggressive blitz will rush and ruffle Tigers on the opening weekend, but there will be chances to find space towards the touchlines.
Footage from pre-season has not been widely shared, but Kelly found Wand with a kick-pass to score against Scarlets…
…and this Liebenberg try came from a passage of confrontational, narrow phase-play. Note Perese, an adept offloader most comfortable at 13, mucking in among the forwards after a burst from Olly Cracknell:
Cheika is thought to be on a ‘one plus one’ arrangement, meaning that he might spend only a single season with Leicester. Nevertheless, he has also teased how “hidden gems” and “younger guys” could force their way into reckoning. Woodward, Cracknell, Hatherell, Wand and Satala would all come under that category, with Finn Carnduff also poised to progress and Corné Beets due to bolster the back-row stocks. Emeka Ilione and Tom Manz could also see game-time.
Jack van Poortvliet, the front-line scrum-half and still just 23, will be out to revive his burgeoning England career, too. There is much to monitor, not least Cheika’s habit of fiery post-match press conferences and questioning refereeing decisions.
It will not be a dull era in Tiger Town.
