Head Coach Jonathan Thomas spoke to the media today ahead of Sunday’s Gallagher Premiership match against Wasps at Sixways (kick-off 3.00pm).
Here’s what Jonathan had to say:
What has been said about the performance at Leicester?
- We had a good, honest conversation on Monday. What I love about coaching players is their hunger to learn and improve.
- They want the club to improve and they recognised and accepted that the standard of performance wasn’t good enough at Welford Road.
How do you go about making the side more consistent?
- The big challenge for us at the moment is that we have some big players missing. Melani Nanai is out for the season, we have two fly-halves – Duncan Weir and Billy Searle – injured and Francois Hougaard out with a shoulder injury.
- So it is a challenge to bring consistency when senior players are not available.
- If I was a supporter I would be annoyed and disappointed by the result at Leicester. But we are seeing some green shoots in our game.
- We are working very hard behind the scenes. We have some exciting plans for the medium and long term and we will have more strength in depth for next season.
With Duncan Weir injured does it give an opportunity to Jamie Shillcock?
- Shilly is a very talented player with a good mind set but he’s not had a huge amount of regular games which is what tens need.
- He’s a threat when he runs the ball and he’s also got a very big boot. This is a good opportunity for him.
- We’ve also got Fin Smith who is just 18 but who is in the England Under-20s set-up and the feedback from them about him has been very positive.
What sort of players are you looking for in your squad?
- Everything that goes with being a Warrior – resilient, tough, hard-working and consistent.
- We have tried to redefine ourselves a little bit and we asked ourselves a lot of questions over the last few weeks about the direction we want to travel.
- A lot of what we are putting in place won’t happen overnight but we are very excited about the future.
- We have sat down and thought our recruitment strategies and the type of players we want to bring into the club. We want to get the right people in for the right reasons.
- We are looking at players who can add value on and off the field. We want cultural architects, guys who are invested in being a Warrior and who are invested in the plans we have got.
On Wasps
- They have some very good athletes in their team and they have the ability to score from anywhere through structured or unstructured play.
- They score a lot of tries from turnovers, interceptions and unstructured play. That makes them dangerous but they also concede tries.
- There are going to be opportunities for us in the game but we have to make sure that we focus on ourselves and make sure we get our game right.
Injuries
- Duncan Weir looks like he will miss a large part of the remainder of the season because of the shoulder injury he sustained at Leicester. We are waiting to hear whether he will need surgery.
- Billy Searle will not be available this weekend because of the deep cut to a thigh muscle he suffered against Exeter.
- Francois Hougaard has a shoulder impingement which forced him to withdraw from the side at Leicester. We will make a decision on him on Friday.
- Andrew Kitchener has recovered from his elbow injury and he will be available this weekend.
- Chris Ashton has just come off the training field and he is very keen to be involved against Wasps. He hasn’t played much recently and we will make a decision on him on Friday.