Thursday 28 March 2019 12:26, UK
Former Leicester Tigers player and coach Richard Cockerill has told Sky Sports his old club have lost their identity and are in need of change from the top down.
Speaking exclusively as a guest on this week's Will Greenwood Podcast, Edinburgh head coach Cockerill, who made 262 appearances for the Tigers and won five league titles, two domestic cups and back-to-back European Cups between 1992 and 2005, was speaking in the context of Leicester getting sucked into a Premiership relegation scrap.
Cockerill, who coached with the club from 2004, becoming director of rugby in 2010, was dismissed in 2017. Leicester currently sit just five points off relegation with five games left and fixtures to come away at bottom-placed Newcastle and at home to Bristol.
"For me, looking now as an outsider, I think: 'What are they trying to do? How are they trying to play? What's their identity?'" Cockerill told Rupert Cox and Will Greenwood.
"In years gone by, if someone asked you about Leicester, you could describe them to a tee around how they approached things, what was their DNA.
"And we're slowly building that at Edinburgh now. You can describe what Edinburgh are going to be like, how they play, what they do and the character the team has.
"I'm not sure Leicester have that anymore. And I think they need to decide what they want to be and how they want to play, and then put a squad together that can do that.
"Nobody is too good to get relegated, but I think they'll be too strong for that to happen. But certainly from the top downwards, they need some clear direction on who they want to coach the team and who they want to run the set-up.
"What is Leicester about? Because, If I'm honest, I don't see it at the moment."
After parting ways with Cockerill in January 2017, Aaron Mauger took over before departing just two months and 12 games later in March 2017.
Matt O'Connor took over thereafter, but he too was fired less than six months into the job and just one game into the present season with Geordan Murphy taking charge.
In the meantime, Leicester have gone from a top-four club to flirting with relegation.
"Whether you agree with change or not, if you make change, it has to get better," Cockerill added.
"I was sacked from my job, and you can argue the rights and the wrongs of that. But if you're going to do that, it means you're not happy with results and where you sit, and you then make a change to get better. And that clearly hasn't happened.
"The people that make those decisions have to stand up at some point and take accountability and sort the mess out. Simple as that. It comes from the top down.
"Those people who make those decisions have to do them better because, clearly, the decisions they've made haven't worked.
"And at the moment, in my opinion only, nobody seems to want to stand up and take responsibility for those decisions."
Despite their predicament, Cockerill does believe though that his old team will have enough to avoid the drop.
"If they get their best players on the field, if they front up physically and they really want to do it, they're good enough to beat anybody," he said.
"They are short of confidence for whatever reason, and to be fair, when their best players have been available, they probably haven't performed as well as they have on the international stage.
"There's still some work to do but to think it's going to be okay just because it will be okay, look historically at Quins, Saints, Bristol, London Irish - you can easily get relegated and it can get away from you really quickly.
"They should be confident they can stay up for obvious reasons: they've got some very very good players, but don't just assume it will happen because it could well catch you out."
