Leicester are ‘suffering from loss of home stars’

Leicester stalwart Matt Smith fears the imperatives of winning are preventing Tigers from blooding academy stars and sticking with them.
Smith, 31, is nearing his 200th appearance for Leicester and was part of a title-winning production line that spawned Dan Cole, Tom Croft and the Youngs brothers, Ben and Tom – a quartet who went on to play prominent roles for England and the Lions.
Welford Road’s academy output has slowed alarmingly, though, with Smith telling The Rugby Paper: “There’s a lot more pressure on people’s jobs now and it’s getting like football where you’re always going to pick an experienced player over youth.
“It’s a shame but that’s the way it is going and it will be much harder in future for young players to push through. We’ve had Manu Tuilagi and Sam Harrison come through, but other than that it’s turned into a bit of a trickle in recent years.
“We were fortunate to have players like Crofty, Coley and the Youngs brothers, and before that there was the group that contained Jim Hamilton, Harry Ellis, Brett Deacon, Ollie Smith, Sam Vesty and Dan Hipkiss, but things have changed a lot.”
Smith holds out some hope, however, adding: “It can be cyclical and George Worth has been pretty impressive from a backs point of view. He’s a confident young lad who had his chances through injury and I’m sure he’s going all the way.
“Will Evans is another who’s coming through, but the important thing now is to play these guys and hold on to them. We’ve had a lot of guys move on – people like Alex Lewington, Henry Purdy, Perry Humphreys and even George Ford – but hopefully, with Anthony Allen coaching the academy now, we’ll address the issue of people leaving.”
With Leicester’s campaign at a crossroads following the dismissal of Richard Cockerill Smith reckons Tigers’ players must look in the mirror if they are to avoid the ignominy of failing to make the play-offs for the first time since season 2003-4. Speaking before yesterday’s rout by Glasgow, he said: “Losing four games in a row prior to this weekend is totally unacceptable for Leicester and as a playing group we must take responsibility.
“It’s all very well getting rid of coaches but players need to take ownership because our performance against Racing 92 in Paris last weekend was one of the lowest moments of my Tigers career.
“We’ve got two weeks of Anglo-Welsh Cup now, starting with Northampton, so we’ve got to target those games and build some momentum going into the Premiership. It’s in our own hands to make the top four.”
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