Michael Cheika is leaving Leicester Tigers in a state of uncertainty ...0

WELFORD ROAD — Consistently inconsistent – it could be the Leicester Tigers mantra.

The sunny Welford Road stage was set for them to roll over Saracens, their old nemesis, and solidify a place in the Premiership play-off spots. But it disintegrated into a messy defeat.

The loss raised fresh doubts over where this solitary season under Michael Cheika is heading, and whether instability off the field is being mirrored on it.

Cheika joined Leicester as head coach last summer on a one-year deal with an option to extend – an option that won’t be enacted as the Australian says he prefers to return to the bosom of his family back home.

Some see Cheika as a fit for the Wallabies job when Joe Schmidt steps down later this year. But to any Tigers supporters growing sick of seeing coaches come and go, it’s another troubling bout of uncertainty.

Leicester lost Steve Borthwick and his 2022 Premiership title-winning cohort of coaches to England, Dan McKellar had a short-lived stint, then it was Cheika.

And that’s not even recounting the revolving door of previous seasons.

As for the players, South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard is moving on this summer and it would be no surprise if fellow marquee star Julian Montoya, the Argentina hooker, does the same.

That should, in theory, leave a chunk of money to spend on new faces – but who will be signing them off, with Cheika departing?

The names tossed into the fly-half rumour mill have included England’s Owen Farrell, Ireland’s Jack Crowley and, seemingly more solidly, Gareth Anscombe – the 33-year-old Wales international who is out of contract at Gloucester this summer.

But whoever comes in will need to dovetail with Cheika’s successor, who remains unannounced with former player Paul Gustard said to have had a release from Stade Français turned down, reportedly over Leicester being unwilling to pay adequate compensation.

Pollard and Montoya were prominent with their individual talent in this match – the Springbok landing all but one of his goal kicks, and putting great energy into short carries, while the Puma was an utter menace with his nose for a turnover.

But it was in the collective sense that Leicester struggled, being unable to create any flow from the rucks, while neither side could be sure what was happening next at the scrums and line-outs.

Looking across Welford Road from the dear old Crumbie Stand, a timeless tableau presented itself as folk shaded their eyes from the sun and watched the men in green, red and white hoops set up at the set-piece and prepare for the kill.

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But the kill very rarely came and Leicester suffered a staggering turnaround from the previous week’s 33-0 win away to Northampton.

Leicester had more than 50 phases in the Saracens 22 in the first half for a return of just two tries, by Freddie Steward and Hanro Liebenberg, and a dropped goal from Pollard.

The home crowd here love to howl at opposition forward passes but their forwards being mullered at scrums brings a visceral, unvocalised pain.

A defensive mis-read by Steward that assisted an excellent finish by Sarries’ England under-20 wing Angus Hall was among the cock-ups. Ollie Chessum would have helped Leicester, but the England second row’s sore shoulder was deemed not worth the risk.

For Cheika, it was a familiar frustration. “We’re inconsistent, yeah, but we have been all year,” he said. “With [the challenge of] turning teams around, and coming in how I have come in, we’ve been working really hard on trying to be consistent – consistent mentality-wise, as well as rugby-wise.

“I didn’t think we were falling away in the shape of our game today, we just didn’t have the extra oomph we needed in the fundamentals, and we played against a team that performed better in those areas.

“We’ve been really good sometimes, but we haven’t been consistent, and that’s what makes you great. That’s our tussle – if we can start building that consistency through the next five or six weeks, we’re going to have a good finish to the season. If not, it’s going to be on a bit of an edge. It’s going to be rough and rugged.”

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