This is the second part of a multi-part series on the evolution of Leicester Tigers Women from Year 1 to Year 2 as they prepare for their first season in Premiership Women's Rugby. This is the writing of a new history. You can read Part 1: The Squad here and you can check out our first-ever Premiership Women's Rugby squad here.
"Today doesn't have to go perfectly, it just has to go well".
Tom Hudson is all about process and buy-in. His appointment has brought the first time the team has had an outright senior coach, following last year's collective effort from Vicky Macqueen, Lewis 'Goose' Glover, Steve Hanna and Lewis Knight.
His comments come as he prepares for Day 1 of pre-season, a strength focused session that finishes with time on the pitch, a Hudson necessity. The senior coach, although as excited as anyone to rip in and begin, has his eyes on the bigger picture, a four-month period where Leicester Tigers must make the step up from Championship to Premiership rugby. He knows that his goals cannot be achieved in a single day and, instead, consistency and belief in the project is what will drive the club to meet these ambitions.
Everything Hudson says is measured and spoken with purpose. His opening address to the team involved clearly outlining his goals for the squad and his expectations for them as individuals. He expects commitment and hard work as a non-negotiable, across all aspects of the schedule. He also requires trust: that is what the buy in is all about, trusting that if you give your all and trust the process you will improve, both individually and as part of an organised unit.
In his initial interview with the club, following his appointment, he made clear how he would approach Leicester Tigers’ first steps in Premiership Women’s Rugby. “We know as a section that we have to work harder than anyone else, both on and off the field, to compete in this league. We have every intention in doing so”.
The coach’s ideals are reflective of where he first entered professional rugby, in the famed Tigers academy. ‘Hard work’, ‘Tough’ and ‘Club First’ are three qualities at the forefront of pre-season thus far and aligns the whole club as one, all pushing in the same direction.
Hudson’s time at Cheltenham Tigers, where he first cut his teeth in management, reflects someone destined to coach at the top level. Hudson was first involved with the team aged just 22, coaching alongside his playing career at Gloucester. He took to it like a duck to water and his CV evolved from helping the side to their first ever victory over, women’s game trailblazers, Thurrock Ladies to back-to-back Championship play-off victories.
However, this wasn’t all that made him attractive to the Tigers coaches. Hudson’s time at Ampthill, where he coached the men’s side in Championship Rugby alongside his commitments at Cheltenham, ended with a flourish; earlier in the season, the club had been second bottom in the table before overseeing a post-Christmas run of eight wins in the remaining 12 games saw them steered into the top half of the table. It is a testament to his incredible work ethic that he could not only balance vastly different coaching roles but achieve success across both.
Despite his young age, not even 30 years old, the club believes they have unearthed a diamond. His record has demonstrated that here was a coach with the adaptability to tweak and engineer a turnaround in form in the short-term, at Ampthill, and who could commit to a project and execute a long-term vision that’s laden with success, as he did at Cheltenham Tigers. It was a record that convinced Leicester Tigers that it was time to bring the ex-academy star home.
Luke Stratford is another young coach looking forward to making a step-up. Also just 28 years-old, the Forwards Coach will be working to ensure excellence across the pack in order to build a platform for the team to compete. Stratford will work alongside Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Clark, to fine tune the side’s scrum and lineouts as well as taking a grander vision of aspects like ruck speed in order to determine how the team dictates the pace of a game.
Although a staunch member of the front-row club, pace is an adjective that fits Stratford like a glove. He has enthusiastically thrown himself into the thick of the action, hosting early line-out throwing sessions pre-training for the hookers and taking part in the sprinting drills set-up for the players. He is effervescently positive and has fit right in at the club.
Despite his sunny exterior, ‘Strats’ has, like many hookers, been described as a master of the dark arts and his time playing across the divisions, from Jersey to the South-West, will have given him ample tricks to teach to a youthful group of props and hookers. He is well-known across Gloucestershire for his work at the University and for transforming the programme at Longlevens in his time as head coach, the Jerseyman comes to the Midlands looking to maintain momentum in a burgeoning career.
The two work well together, the most obvious coaching balance a result of their natural predications toward backs and forwards; Hudson a versatile back, predominantly starring at 15, whilst Stratford is a born hooker, at home slap bang in the cement mixer that is a scrum. There are parallels to be made with their playing and coaching styles, Hudson planning from further back, overseeing and picking his moment whilst Stratford gets straight in there, all energy and excitement.
The final coach to have joined the team this year is Rocky Clark MBE, who sits in stark contrast to two coaches who are taking their first steps coaching at the top of the game. Clark lives at the top of the mountain, a list of records and achievements too long to begin to delve into in a single article.
Inevitably, the England caps record, since overtaken by Sarah Hunter, will bubble straight to the forefront of the mind when talking about the prop. The magnitude of such an achievement commands respect from players, coaches and management alike.
If anyone could stand as the ultimate motivator to drive such a young group to conquer new heights, it’s her. Before even discussing her abilities as a coach there are certain intangibles that Clark brings that cannot be found elsewhere. That ‘leave it all on the field’ desire to win is one of them but there’s also a total commitment there, not just to matchdays but to the whole process around being a top-level athlete and the sacrifices you must make to stay there. You’ll be unsurprised to learn that Rocky is a fighter, through and through.
As a coach, the world cup winner has, typically, been a part of success at the top level, a key cog both on and off the field in a Saracens team that lifted the Premiership trophy in the first season she joined the club (after a year break due to the Covid outbreak). She knows the Premiership like the back of her hand and, for a side looking to find their feet at the elite level, her incredible breadth of knowledge will be invaluable.
The fire that powers athletes still burns at the level of an inferno inside Clark and it should be noted that the 42 year-old has not retired from playing; if the opportunity arises, do not be surprised to see the 137 cap England international lace up her boots and pull on the famous green, white and red jersey.
Helping to bring the three new coaches into the fold, Head of Women’s Rugby Vicky Macqueen is delighted with the coaching set-up, with their compatibility into the entrenched values of the club as a whole and the aptitude they have shown in such a short space of time. Macqueen believes their commitment to excellence and extensive knowledge within the game will be vital in nurturing the potential of a, comparatively, younger squad.
In a similar vein to the recruitment strategy within the playing squad, the primary concern of management when forging their desired coaching team is balance. The incoming coaches must not only reflect the Tigers ethos and work well alongside the coaches already involved but also work well together, as a united front and in harmony with one another’s skillset. The three are in perfect parallel in their focus on success.
