"Consistency and confidence" are the two major qualities head coach Aaron Mauger wants to build in the Leicester Tigers squad after being placed in interim charge of team affairs.
With the departure of director of rugby Richard Cockerill this week, Mauger leads the coaching team and met the media for the first time on Wednesday to give his thoughts on the way forward with 10 rounds remaining in the Aviva Premiership as well as important fixtures in both cup competitions.
“We’re 12 games down and four points out of the top four,” he said. “We have a good group of players and leaders, and I think we are capable of top four. If you get into the top four, you have a chance.
“We just need to be consistent. It is my job to make sure we prepare right so we can perform well.
“It’s been a very tough season, we’ve had our ups and downs, we’ve had to deal with the changes over the last few days and now we all have a big job and a responsibility for the situation we are in.
“I’ve got great support around me, good staff at Oval Park, a great playing group and good leaders there.”
Reflecting on Cockerill’s career at the club, Mauger said: “He has done a great job here, he led the club in some difficult times and also achieved a lot leading the group from the front.
“He has been in today to say his goodbyes to the lads and they wished him well. It is a mark of the man that he is prepared to do that so early and have a chat and a laugh with the boys.
“It was a sad day on a personal level. We get along very well, I was sad for him. I’m sure if we had performed better as a group and coaching group we would not be in this positon.”
Mauger’s first game in charge is away to Aviva Premiership leaders Wasps on Sunday.
“A lot of things we are doing are really good, but we need to make sure we do things better and be more consistent,” he said.
“We’re not going to make drastic changes, but as a group and myself leading that we’ve got to make sure we give the guys the structure to perform as well as possible. We've not done that consistently enough this season.
“We need to be better. We did a lot of good things last weekend, we created more opportunities than Saracens, we matched them and were more physical than them at times, but you switch off for 15 seconds and they score. We are competitive, we’re not far off, it is about keeping belief there, believing we can go out and beat anybody and about getting a bit of confidence.”
Mauger confirmed that Brett Deacon will move up from the academy to work with the first-team defence and former Tigers prop Boris Stankovich will do some scrum coaching.
With the departure of director of rugby Richard Cockerill this week, Mauger leads the coaching team and met the media for the first time on Wednesday to give his thoughts on the way forward with 10 rounds remaining in the Aviva Premiership as well as important fixtures in both cup competitions.
“We’re 12 games down and four points out of the top four,” he said. “We have a good group of players and leaders, and I think we are capable of top four. If you get into the top four, you have a chance.
“We just need to be consistent. It is my job to make sure we prepare right so we can perform well.
“It’s been a very tough season, we’ve had our ups and downs, we’ve had to deal with the changes over the last few days and now we all have a big job and a responsibility for the situation we are in.
“I’ve got great support around me, good staff at Oval Park, a great playing group and good leaders there.”
Reflecting on Cockerill’s career at the club, Mauger said: “He has done a great job here, he led the club in some difficult times and also achieved a lot leading the group from the front.
“He has been in today to say his goodbyes to the lads and they wished him well. It is a mark of the man that he is prepared to do that so early and have a chat and a laugh with the boys.
“It was a sad day on a personal level. We get along very well, I was sad for him. I’m sure if we had performed better as a group and coaching group we would not be in this positon.”
Mauger’s first game in charge is away to Aviva Premiership leaders Wasps on Sunday.
“A lot of things we are doing are really good, but we need to make sure we do things better and be more consistent,” he said.
“We’re not going to make drastic changes, but as a group and myself leading that we’ve got to make sure we give the guys the structure to perform as well as possible. We've not done that consistently enough this season.
“We need to be better. We did a lot of good things last weekend, we created more opportunities than Saracens, we matched them and were more physical than them at times, but you switch off for 15 seconds and they score. We are competitive, we’re not far off, it is about keeping belief there, believing we can go out and beat anybody and about getting a bit of confidence.”
Mauger confirmed that Brett Deacon will move up from the academy to work with the first-team defence and former Tigers prop Boris Stankovich will do some scrum coaching.
