WRW: ELLIS GENGE TO LEAVE LEICESTER
Another big name departs
This is not a drill.
Genge is following George Ford out of the Welford Road door at the end of the season. The Telegraph (£) is already reporting that the likely destination is Bristol.
Yes the cut in salary cap may well be a factor as well, as teams reduce their wage bill.
There have been rumours around Welford Road that this has been likely for the last few weeks. A desire to be closer to family in the South West is believed to be the stated reason why.
The stated reasons are remarkably - and suspiciously - similar to that of Ford’s statement. But to lose both top English players at the club is a striking blow and the chance of coincidence reduces the more often this happens.
I don’t doubt that like Ford, money was not the primary factor. But there is unquestionably another:
Genge was so fed up with the way clubs, including Leicester, dealt with salary cuts and the inaction of the RPA, that he seriously looked into forming a new, more militant players’ union.
Ford was one of the last players, before finally agreeing to a 25% wage cut.
You don’t leave a setup like Leicester, which is developing into one of the best in Europe, for any old reason.
So are we finding out who was most annoyed by the way Leicester handled the whole business last season?
BACK TO BORDEAUX
I’ll let you judge just where on the richter scale of Leicester’s greatest wins in Europe, but the smash & grab raid in French wine country must be up there with the very best.
To do as professional a job as that is a testament to the players, obviously, but the coaching and analysis team deserve a serious mention for the way they picked apart Bordeaux-Begles’ system. (See Charlie Morgan’s tweet below.)
Now that the dust has settled, nothing will touch Paris or Cardiff a year later.
Winning in Clermont wasn’t half-bad although at the end of a pool and in front of a far from full Marcel Michelin. But this is on a par for me with the Toulouse semi-final on the Welford Road ice rink and only just behind the first win at Thomond park.
Given the changes - seemingly made by choice - this is about as good as it gets in the modern era against a team who are very serious about their European ambitions.
And if you were dreaming about a weekend in Marseilles next May, you were not alone…
BUT DOES THE CHAMPIONS CUP MATTER AS MUCH?
Leicester made headlines when they made 11 changes for the game in SW France. My eyebrows were certainly raised but in terms of selection, the sheer number of changes appears to be an outlier.
Admittedly, Bath gave European debuts to six of their team who were crushed by Leinster/Ireland and Wasps have had a Covid outbreak, although they seem to have more injury crises than Allied Carpets have sales these days. (Anyone looked at their training methods recently?)
However, Northampton made just three changes, Harlequins even fewer, Exeter just one while Sale made four for their trip to Ospreys.
There is though a constant feeling around Europe that a little of the sparkle has gone from what should be the showpiece of the club season. I can hear one or two voices in the background mumbling about moaning journalists, but it’s a fact. The challenge is what we do.
Europe has changed
When money is tight - as so many of us know so well, right now - you should be wary about pointing fingers about clubs who don’t appear to be packing them in.
Yes, Wasps appear to have particular issues right now - including laying off most of their marketing department - but the days when mass support from Munster or Leinster would bail you out for one particular game appear to have gone.
The contrast between Sunday’s attendance at Coventry to the 21,506 on Munster’s last visit to the city in November 2007, is rather stark.
But it’s wider than that.
This is a different European competition now, but it is caught between being the best of the best and a full-throated European league. To be blunt, if you take in the top 8 from each of the three leagues, you do well not to qualify, but you can understand why every team should be involved in some way, shape and form, at least to start.
The Champions Cup pool stage - 8 teams qualifying from each 12-team pool - is a nonsense and I notice this year’s Challenge Cup format is different. Not that anyone cares about the competition, you understand.
To me, there are three choices:
Abolish the competition. The love for European competition is a lot weaker among the English and French clubs, than it is especially for the Irish provinces whose entire season is built around it.
It is a fine, fine event at its best, especially in the latter stages, but is this a competition whose time is running its course?Radically restructure the competition.
Three competitions - with 12 teams in the Champions Cup, 16 in a Challenge Cup and 16 in a third competition - to preserve the best of the best and make the Challenge Cup a competition worth looking at.
Yes the South African teams are included, as they inevitably will be.Go knockout
Throw everyone in the same single competition, but make it knockout, over home and away.
The bottom 24 teams play in a qualifying round, while the top 20 are protected for the last 32 in the first round proper. Yes, television would be worried at the prospect of losing a big name early on or more matches between teams from the same country.
But rarity will drive value and it would introduce an element of danger - and could be completed in the same number of weekends as this season. Why not?
BE READY FOR THIS ON SUNDAY
AND BE READY FOR THIS FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS SOLID
I do hope that Borthwick’s contract has the fattest and most expensive release clause in modern rugby history.
Time to breathe…
See you soon..
Excellent points as always Chris 👍 My thoughts are around ,personal maybe somewhat now regarded as old fashioned values I think Ellis has been manipulated by the Bristol marketing machine and we have seen how that worked following our encounter at Welford road last season .However I feel he should front up and acknowledge his actions with the video were insensitive to his massive following among the tigers faithful . I hope his values are as I think they are and he makes a statement to the tigers to that effect and moves on and I wish him well and good fortune if he is man enough to own his mistake ..
Is it the handling of salaries or is there an underlying current here with the new management style? Pinchen had to do something otherwise the club would go under; many people in many walks of life had to take cuts or lose their jobs. We survived and are now building a strong club - both Genge & Ford could earn serious money at the Tigers so possibly it IS just for family reasons or maybe, the new management style is too dictatorial? I genuinely don't know the answer, just raising another possibility!