Richard Cockerill cut a relaxed figure as we sat down following Tigers’ win over Toulon back in December. Although somewhat frustrated that their famous victory had been overshadowed by some unprintable verbals from the opposition - former Tigers’ cult hero Martin Castrogiovanni directing them at Cockers himself, Delon Armitage at the supporters - he could at least say “I’m so glad it’s not me in the **** for once”. His overall reaction to Castro’s abuse was unfazed. “My advice to him is to plead guilty and be contrite,” he said. “I was amazed at the outburst and have no idea where all the angst came from. He’s made a little bit of a fool of himself.” The Italian/Argentine had claimed that Cockerill had put it about that he’d le for the money “The whole thing is madness” he continued “The exact truth is that Martin didn’t want to be rotated and said if you’re not going to play me I’d like to go somewhere else.” His reaction to Armitage’s tirade at the Tigers’ fans was also more in sorrow than in anger.” It just drives a wedge between the players and supporters. The danger is we’ll end up segregated like football. He may have been provoked by something someone said – I don’t know – but he’s a custodian of the shirt and a public figure. If someone has a pop at you, you can defend yourself – but in the right way.” We moved on to his players, to Cockers’
to 15, Oaks kept the scoreboard ticking over and the last action of note inevitably involved Matthews , who sent the ball into orbit for Daw to score his redemption try. Final score 21-3. As we went to press more news was coming through of heroics away to fourth-placed Lutterworth. Six points down with seconds left on the clock Oaks repeatedly pounded the opponents’ line and, after four consecutive penalties, the referee finally awarded a penalty try which was duly converted, to enable them to truly ice their Christmas cake with a 17-16 win. More glad tidings came from the U17s, who won the County Cup by beating
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Richard Cockerill has praised new signing Brad Thorn
evident pleasure about the contribution Brad Thorn has made to the side. “First of all it’s his play but secondly the confidence he gives to the youngsters around him” he said. “He’s like a big brother to Graham Kitchener, for one. It’s like - If anyone messes with me they have to mess with him. That’s a real benefit to all the youngsters coming through.”
Syston 19-10 in the final. This was their third consecutive win in the competition having won it at U15 and U16 level. It fell to Stamford College Old Boys to be the pantomime villains, conceding exactly 62 points to both Bedford Swifts and Bourne with only seven points against the latter to their name. They remain firmly anchored at the foot of Midlands Three South East. Stoneygate played just the once, against Coalville thirds, but continued to demonstrate that they should really be playing at a higher level by running up a whopping 96 points. One wonders if they regret turning down the league’s offer of
Tigers do remain inconsistent though, and while the forwards are giving them a platform the backs are really struggling to fire. Perhaps a combination of injury and lack of head coach are contributing to the situation. But when Tuilagi, Bai and Loamanu are fit again we may see things change, and the news that All Black legend and ex-Tiger Aaron Mauger will join the club a er this season as head coach is certainly very welcomed – and much needed.
double promotion last year. Deepings had only the one league match which saw them beat Old Newtonians 21-12. As this is the time of year for reflecting, I thought you may be amused by looking back at my pre-season predictions, which included what looks at present to be one spectacularly bad call (Stamford to finish fourth), an optimistic one (Oakham to finish second), two easy ones (Stamford College and Deepings will both do well to reach mid-table), and one good one (Stoneygate will finally lose a league match after five years but still be in the top-four). All in all, four out of 10 - I’ll make a New Year’s resolution to do better.
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