How things can change in a matter of weeks. Of course, all of the above still stands. Ellis is match fit, Castro is destroying scrums and Johne Murphy is fighting it out with Jordan Crane for player of the season. So, what went wrong? Not an easy one to answer and as I’m not privy to what happens behind the gates of Welford Road not something I’m going to attempt to answer here. What I will do however is discuss some of the issues that have been surrounding the club for the past few weeks.

Loffreda

Can’t start anywhere else can we? Some posters believe he’s out of his depth, some believe he’s being stabbed in the back by player power and some believe he’s lost the faith of the board who searched the world (wait, didn’t Argentina come here…) to recruit what seemed at the time an exciting prospect. For me, I believe people calling for his head to have very short memories. It took Pat Howard three years and a few abject performances to win anything. Before that you have to go back to 2002 to see a certain England manager’s mitts on any trophy that wasn’t a wild card one.

I was at the Ospreys game so I know how awful the performance was. It was one of the worst I’d seen in a Tigers game in 16 years. There was no heart, no passion and no fire. Funnily enough, the three adjectives you’d use to describe Argentina’s performance in the World Cup were all missing. Still, was it any different to the Heineken Cup final against Wasps, the Guinness Premiership final against Sale or the Heineken Cup quarter final against Bath? Now, out of those four games I’ve mentioned only one of them had Loffreda in charge of. In no way am I having a go at Pat Howard, it’s just key to point out people seemed to have forgotten the last few seasons before the last success. Also bring into the fact that it’s a World Cup season and we all remember what turmoil the last one brought.

In my opinion, we have to keep hold of Loffreda. Give him next season with a full pre-season and some select signings then judge him. Not when he’s come in half way through a season living in a new country with his family and his own squad. Only then will we know if he was worth the punt.

Hernandez Saga

I really didn’t want to comment on this, but again it seems to be an unavoidable topic of conversation for Leicester fans. The truths are as follows: as of next season we have one registered fly half. We know that Ian Humphreys is being let out of his contract a year early and that Paul Burke’s contract has come to an end. Surely then, the club has something up their sleeve? Possibly the longest drawn out transfer saga in professional rugby history has now taken the turn that ‘Magic Juan’ is more likely than not staying in the glitz of Paris for another season at least. Has this something to do with the uncertainty over Loffreda’s future? It would be naive not to think so.

Then, what are Tigers options? We need to sign at least two specialist fly halves. Andy Goode gets a lot of criticism when he doesn’t perform and sometimes I think it goes the other way when he plays well. I still firmly believe he’s the best fly half we have at this club at the present time and I believe he will continue that into next season. The concern is did Tigers put all their eggs into one basket with the courting of Hernandez over all others? Have we missed out on Evans, Flood or even Carter? Only time will really tell on that but the fact of the matter is we need some real recruiting at 10 if we are going to compete across the board next year.

Youngsters

I really don’t want this piece to end on a worrying note, as it’s important to focus on some of the massive positives to come out of this season so far. Firstly, the emergence of Johne Murphy. In the Ospreys final he was one of the players who put their hand up to be counted. Even when injured he was throwing himself in front of back row players as the last line of defence. I’ve always thought it was unfair when people compare him to Geordan as they are completely different players, but Johne is making a name for himself now and now pushes Geordan on merit, not as an injury or rotation stop gap.

I believe Jordan Crane is a future Tigers captain. His tireless work going forward has become very important to the club this season. I still don’t believe that a back-row containing both Crane and Corry is suitable for big games, but Jordan always breaks the first tackle and always makes the hard yards. Yes, he still has some things he needs to improve on, but he is still very young. Given a few years and more big match experience he’ll be priceless to any team he plays in.

You can’t really talk about youngsters without mentioning Tom Croft. Now a full England regular he has benefited from being given an extended run in the first team and it has just shown what a real talent he is. Without looking at the statistics I’d say he’s been one of our main lineout options, he tackles endlessly and he still has pace to surprise a defence. There’s a real class about him and although I still don’t believe he’s a true open side, he’s the best blindside flanker at the club at the moment.

So, what next for us? Our expectations have lowered from reaching a fourth consecutive Premiership Final to getting at least 6^th in the league and qualifying for Europe. I still believe we can contest with the best, the EDF Semi proved it. All we need is to get some consistency for the run in, and where better to start than Newcastle on Sunday.

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