Leicester’s season has not been good enough but Dan McKellar needs more time
The Monday after another dispiriting Premiership loss, this time away at Sale, Leicester unveiled a raft of new membership packages alongside a campaign involving past-and-present big names – Peter Wheeler, Dan Cole, Tom Croft, Chris Ashton – encouraging fans to “embrace the past and inspire the future”.
The concept has been dubbed ‘Tigers Together’ and the timing is apposite given it is the crossroads of past, present and future with which Leicester currently grapple. For the best supported and most successful club in England, an eighth-placed finish, with only the floundering duo of Gloucester and Newcastle beneath them, cannot be dressed up into anything but an underachievement.
The context of Tigers’ past – Premiership champions after a handful of the most abject seasons in the club’s history – resulted in Leicester re-taking its seat among English rugby’s heavyweights and subsequently expectations for the squad are as high as ever. In terms of the table standings, the 2023/24 campaign will end in melancholy and mediocrity for Leicester, with potentially four consecutive losses and no Champions Cup rugby. But enough has happened this season in mitigation to suggest that calmer waters could lie ahead.
Dan McKellar, Leicester’s highly rated head coach, has not even finished his first season in English rugby, arriving last July with the challenge of knitting back together a club whose coaching team had been plundered by the Rugby Football Union.
Matt Everard (defence), Brett Deacon (assistant) and Matt Smith (skills) are the only surviving senior coaches from the Steve Borthwick era as England head coach. Kevin Sinfield, Richard Wigglesworth and Tom Harrison joined as assistants to Borthwick, while Aled Walters linked up as head of strength and conditioning. The spectre of that past success has hung over McKellar as the judgments of his inaugural season have rolled in.
McKellar’s knitting had to take place in a World Cup season, too, with that cast of coaches having poached the majority of Leicester’s stars for their own international commitments.
A stark statistic of Leicester’s season is that the (now injured) Ollie Chessum and George Martin, two of English rugby’s most promising talents, have started just five times together for the club this season across all competitions. McKellar would have known of their absences until November and throughout February and March but would have expected to be able to employ their services more regularly throughout the season. When they have played together, their impact has been thunderous. When missing, their absence has been stark.
It is no secret that Leicester’s attack has struggled this season. Only Newcastle have fewer try bonus points. But, again, McKellar has been hamstrung. His attack coach Alan Dickens was placed on leave in October and has not been seen at Mattioli Woods Welford Road since. In his absence, club stalwart Smith stepped up from skills coach to take the reins. Amid the uncertain and under-resourced attack, the Premiership has not seen the best version of two-time World Cup winner Handre Pollard at fly-half.
Another area under scrutiny is strength and conditioning. In his past two press conferences, McKellar has lamented the way in which his side have dropped out of matches after 60 minutes this season. Northampton away, Sale away, Bristol at home and Leinster away are all examples of games in the past few months where Leicester have been firmly in the fight until after 50 minutes before finishing on the losing side. Ollie Richardson returned to Welford Road as head of strength and conditioning after a six-season stint with Tigers between 2005 and 2011 but replacing Walters, regarded as one of the best in the business, was always going to be a tall order and McKellar has detailed a post-season review for that programme in his past two press appearances.
The curious element is that there have been highlights. In a barmy Premiership season, Leicester have at times embodied the barminess. The Tigers have this season defeated both of the current top three teams in the league - defeating Bath both home and away - beat Harlequins at the Stoop and won away at Stade Francais (who, until defeat to Toulouse on Sunday night, had led the Top 14 since Christmas).
There were also two gutsy displays against Leinster where, you guessed it, the Tigers ran out of steam after strong starts.
Even with the extenuating circumstances, to describe this season as a hospital pass for McKellar would be overly generous but there is no doubt that the straight-talking Australian has had a rougher ride than what was forecast this time last year. The head coach deserves a second crack of the whip next season, with a full pre-season and a full coaching ticket. Judgment in June 2025 would be far fairer and empathetic towards the circumstances than suggesting anything rash in 2024. This is Tigers Together, after all, not Tigers Apart.
