Steve Borthwick knows how far Leicester have come - The challenge now is to sustain it
Steve Borthwick has transformed Leicester Tigers into a winning machine
©Leicester Tigers
When Steve Borthwick took over the reins at Mattioli Welford Road 17 months ago, there was so much uncertainty and many issues for the former England coach to resolve.
Not only were the Premiership’s most successful club fighting a battle at the wrong end of the table, but contract negotiations were also thrust into the spotlight after teams agreed to reduce the salary cap.
In the Tigers’ case, star names such as Manu Tuilagi refused to take a pay cut and departed the Midlands leaving Borthwick with the task of creating his own blueprint without some of his marquee players.
So when you take a couple of these aspects into account, the fact Leicester head into the Boxing Day round of fixtures on top of the tree is testament to Borthwick’s planning and vision.
“There’s no doubt my eyes were opened to just how far we were behind other teams,” Borthwick told the press on Tuesday. “That was very, very clear. The club was in a pretty poor state. Some things that were done around that period made it pretty challenging.
“Other clubs had their plans in place. Their squads signed on long contracts. They’d been competing at the top end for so long that players were happy. They wanted to stay.
“Leicester Tigers were not in that situation. They were completely the other end of the spectrum. That’s what I walked into. The last 18 months we’ve had a lot of work to do to try to reshape the squad just to make it competitive.
“Always at Leicester Tigers there is expectation, even when you’re that far behind other teams but I’d rather that than be at a place that has none.”
The Tigers have won all nine of their Gallagher Premiership fixtures and have created a healthy nine-point gap between themselves and Saracens, having brushed aside nearly all before them in the top-flight.
Leicester open their account in the New Year against Newcastle Falcons, but before that, they face Bristol Bears who finished at the summit of the Premiership at the end of the 2020/21 regular season.
The tables seemed to have turned dramatically with Pat Lam’s charges scratching around towards the lower reaches of the division, but Borthwick is not underestimating the Bears when they travel to Ashton Gate.
“We’ll give it our best shot but, let’s be honest, Bristol have been light years ahead of Leicester,” he said.
“Tigers have beaten Bristol once out of the last six, but I’m excited that Leicester are involved in big games again because before they weren’t, other than relegation games.
“I want to be involved in games where we’re competing against big, really well-coached teams, which Bristol are, packed full of superstars and with incredible financial resources.
“Leicester went so badly off track for so many years, so to be back actually in those games after a pretty short period of time I think is a positive thing for us.”
