The season is barely one game old but Leicester have already seen enough to persuade them to part company with their head coach, Matt O’Connor. The Australian has left Welford Road with immediate effect in the wake of the Tigers’ 40-6 opening weekend mauling at Exeter.
Even by the increasingly brutal standards of professional sport the sacking qualifies among the more spectacular knee-jerk reactions of modern times, with the former Irish international Geordan Murphy now in temporary charge. O’Connor, however, had already started this season under pressure following his team’s failure to finish in the Premiership’s top four for the first time since 2004.
Ruthless Exeter Chiefs turn on the power to give Leicester early shock
The Tigers are unaccustomed to such mediocrity and the grim second-half showing at Sandy Park has clearly exhausted the board’s patience. “Matt was appointed head coach in April 2017 on the basis of his previous Premiership experience and his knowledge of the club,” said Leicester’s chairman, Peter Tom.”We believe the time is right to make this change in the best interests of the Tigers moving forward. We would like to thank Matt for his hard work and commitment.”
O’Connor began his second spell at the club in the closing stages of the 2016-17 season and helped Tigers into the Premiership semi-finals that year. During his first stint the former Wallaby international enjoyed a productive partnership with the former director of rugby Richard Cockerill but these days Leicester are increasingly choking on the fumes of the country’s current pacesetters Saracens and Exeter.
Murphy, an eight-time Premiership title winner and double European champion in his 16 years as a player at Tigers, will take over on an interim basis alongside fellow coaches Mark Bakewell, Boris Stankovich and Brett Deacon but Mike Ford, father of the Tigers’ England fly-half, George, is already among the names being linked with the vacancy.
It would have been a good deal easier to change tack in the summer, rather than within 72 hours of the league season kicking off, and the Tigers board are beginning to look increasingly indecisive. The club sacked Cockerill in January 2017, opted to part company with his initial replacement, Aaron Mauger, three months later and, 16 months on, have now ditched O’Connor as well.
The home supporters will also be quick to appreciate the irony when they welcome their next opponents Newcastle, guided by the former Tigers’ legend Dean Richards, to Welford Road this Saturday. If Leicester were to lose and also struggle away to new midlands rivals Wasps in Coventry, in round three it really would represent the start from hell.
Niki Goneva’s light touch sparks a debate on what is cheating in sport | Paul MacInnes
No pressure, then, on the much-liked Murphy who has been lobbed the warmest of hot potatoes.“As a club Leicester Tigers will always aspire to challenge for major honours in the incredibly competitive arena of professional elite club rugby and everyone at the club will fully support Geordan and the management group in driving the team forward,” said Tom. “Geordan knows the expectations and ambitions of the Tigers as well as anyone after more than 20 years here as player and coach, and we wish him and the team the very best for the challenges ahead.”
Murphy’s first job will be to fill the hole left by the departure of the centre Matt Toomua and Tatafu Polota-Nau back to Australia where they are set to be involved for the Wallabies against South Africa in Brisbane. What the coaching outlook will be looking like at Leicester by the time the pair return to the UK is currently anyone’s guess.