'It was sink or swim': The fearsome dressing room culture which existed at Dean Richards' Leicester
Ex-England international Sam Vesty has opened up about the very different dressing room culture that existed when he was a player at Leicester and what is now tolerated in the modern game regarding drinking, training ground bust-ups and general behaviours.
The current Northampton Saints assistant coach made his name at Tigers during an era where the club were serial trophy winners who played hard and partied even harder. Vesty made 111 appearances for Leicester between 2002 and 2010 before finishing out his playing career at Bath.
Now 38, he has since honed a reputation as one of English rugby’s most up-and-coming coaches, earning his stripes at Worcester before wielding his influence at Chris Boyd’s Northampton. He also assisted England, travelling with them for their 2017 tour of Argentina while other staff were away with the Lions.
Looking back on his time on the field, he claimed the atmosphere at Leicester was sink or swim with players who couldn’t sufficiently adapt to the way it was run quickly cast aside during an era where Tigers were constantly challenging for Premiership and European titles.
Speaking to former Leicester teammate Jim Hamilton on The Lockdown, the RugbyPass pandemic interview series, Vesty said of his eight years at Tigers: “My fondest moments, a lot of them are off the pitch stuff where we just had a lot of fun.
“We did some great things on the field and I loved all that, but we had some great times off the field. We worked hard when we crossed the white line, that was very definite, but there was some good fun off it as well and growing up through the age groups, they were real fond times.
“You make some really good friends at that time, don’t you? I look back on this with really fond memories. Some of the drinking sessions were great fun, some of the games we had when we managed to get ourselves out of the crap and win, and some of the training sessions – you look back on some of those training sessions where it used to kick-off and you actually look back on those fondly now. They were flippin’ good times.
“What I took from my time then is that it spit out lots of people who couldn’t take that environment. It created an environment that if you weren’t that type of person, there was nowhere to go. You either swam or you sank and if you sank you were just got rid of, you were there for three months and then suddenly gone and that happened to a lot of people in those days. Actually, a lot of the people who that happened to would have been good players.
“What I have learned from being away from there is that was one way of doing it. It was a very good way but it was very much of its time and it was very much of the place it was. Moving on, some players wouldn’t make it there but would make it somewhere else and be very, very good players, so there are different ways of doing things.
“But the fundamentals of you have to be competitive, you have to create a competitive environment where people want to beat the other people in that squad, that actually just makes everyone get better and better and better.
“Ultimately I take that competitiveness out of my time at Leicester, and then secondly the culture was peer-driven. You have been part of teams that go and write stuff on walls, they go and make lists of things and they do all these things that at that point we didn’t do.
“But you knew as soon as someone was out of order it was put down and everyone knew where the boundaries were, they just weren’t written on walls. It wasn’t like that. Dean (Richards) set a culture, the players (he mentions Martin Johnson, Martin Corry, Richard Cockerill and Graham Rowntree by nickname), there were so many leaders there that just bossed it.”
Even the greats can make mistakes https://t.co/GUVl5NouAh
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 6, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Always reluctant to blame a coach when losses rack up, but Penney must go. The backline is dysfunctional and the coach must carry the can. No cohesion, no idea and in many cases, minimal skill. The trains out of Roma St depart faster than the ball from Crusaders’ set pieces. Wouldn’t be surprised if the forwards went on strike.
1 Go to commentsAdding to earlier comment. Cullen Grace has been playing great at no6. Lio-Willie , who was on fire a few weeks ago, had a bad game. I think Cullen should have been moved to 8 earlier, Dominic Gardiner on earlier. Feel for Quinten Strange , put in a big shift .
4 Go to commentsWe dominated the scrums Ben Curry was all over pitch again .Surely James Harper got to be one of best English tightheads
1 Go to commentsRoos is a better option at 6 than 8 for the boks. Needs to work on his windgat though.
1 Go to commentsThe Sharks’ 2nd team maybe?
1 Go to comments‘radical’
1 Go to commentsCome back to Christchurch Robbie, please!
1 Go to commentsI think there is zero chance Sam Cane will be selected for another Test. There is simply no point except sentimentality. Razor is not sentimental- ask Wyatt Crocket. Razor is a ruthless selector
4 Go to comments> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
4 Go to commentswhat’s happening to Ian Peel?
1 Go to commentsAs a Crusaders fan , so disappointed , again.But I think Fergus Burke was all class for the Crusaders in his first game since October last year. Fletcher Newell , was so good at prop. Johnny McNicoll has been gold since returning from Wales. Noah Hotham brilliant , in a coming of age second season for the Crusaders.Jone Rova did really well at centre. The end of the game was tough.Sevu Reece , what a game/season in tough times.
4 Go to commentsFellas a balloon
3 Go to commentsBlues B team on display and made no race of it. By far the best team in SR with the Hurricanes barely getting past the winning post. Up the Blues 💙
7 Go to commentsWould be amazing to have Servette Genève reaching this level
3 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can't buy a win this season. Surely Penney's contract won't be renewed. There's still enough talent in the squad that they oughta be winning more.
1 Go to commentsABs captain for 23 seasons. Decent record. Surely nobody will surpass it. Legend. But alas a typo…
4 Go to commentsJust FYI Rugbypass, I for one am tired of your clickbait titles and thumbnails and will be clicking them no longer. Good day.
1 Go to commentsI think Farrell despite all of the stick he gets in the media is still one of if not the best fly half in the world. He is literally the full package. He can kick one of the best in the world, probably has the best defensive game of a fly half in the world and if he wants to he can run, take contact and find an offload to keep the pace of the attack. I dont know why he isnt spoken more about still being one of the best in the world with the likes of dupont. Farrell is the ultimate captain and team leader and is experienced- he has been in nearly any situation you can think of. I still believe due to these reasons that he is England’s best ever player and is still one of the best players in the world.
48 Go to commentsBlues are dominating up front and that’s been a long time coming. They have won the up front confrontation which is where canes, hilanders and act brumbies are also strong.
7 Go to commentsJust watched brumbies v safas game sadly not a show in he’ll thryr anywhere near quarters or semi contention. Admittedly some issues around new comers bot what stands out for me is coaching management, poor game planning and accuracy.
5 Go to comments