Savouring southern comfort

Leicester’s European Champions Cup semi-final with Racing 92 in Nottingham on Sunday may be an Anglo-French affair but it is laced with a significant southern hemisphere twist. The two three-quarter lines alone promise to take in three of the four Rugby Championship countries and all three of the Pacific Nations.



It is not just clubs who quaff southern comfort in the professional age: three of the four home unions are coached by New Zealanders while England are coached by an Australian. It has acted, in the English game’s case at least, as an antidote to the focus on defence ushered in when recruiting coaches from rugby league became vogue.

“The southern hemisphere influence has been positive in England,” said the Leicester three-quarter Peter Betham, an Australian international who was born in New Zealand to Samoan parents. “It has had a big impact on the skill levels of forwards and you are seeing more interlinking between backs and forwards. The result has been more expansive play and tries in the Premiership despite the wet winter. The weather has not dictated too much what happens on the field and that has been consistently the case with the All Blacks. Wasps, Exeter, Harlequins and Sale, among others, all play a wide game in the wet and that is what we have been doing at Leicester.”

Leicester had the poorest try-scoring record in the Premiership last season after hapless London Welsh, failing to score one in seven of their Premiership matches; two campaigns earlier, “penalty try” at one stage threatened to be their top scorer. They turned to the former New Zealand centre Aaron Mauger, who finished his playing career at Welford Road, who was last summer appointed the head coach on a three-year contract. This was a club that had long embodies the virtues of English rugby, strong set-pieces, strong defence and an accurate kicking game, strangling opponents rather than stretching them.

That has changed and if Leicester’s results this season have been those of a team in a state of evolution, they are now as dangerous in possession five metres from their own line as well as from the opposition’s. Mauger is converting the England centre Manu Tuilagi from an outside-centre to a 12 and he has moved Betham, who before arriving at the club had never started a professional game in the midfield, from the wing to 13.

“I joined Leicester because I was looking to go offshore to travel and gain some experience and also because Aaron Mauger was going to be at the club,” said the 27-year old Betham, who has won two caps for Australia. “It offered the chance to play alongside great players like Manu and while it was a hard decision to move away from your family, which is important when you come from a Pacific Island background, and give up the chance of playing for Australia again, I have no regrets about coming here and hope to stay with the club for a good few more years.

“Aaron gets us to back our ability, play what is in front of us and apply pressure when we need to,” said Betham. “Being able to think freely is what it is all about. I do not think we have hit top gear yet: there is a lot more to come as individuals, as a team and a back division. We are only coming to grips with our combinations, not having played the same backline consistently in the past. You can see Aaron’s impact in Freddie Burns who has really developed over the season at outside-half, seeing opportunities and backing himself, but kicking when he needs to.”

Betham arrived as a wing with a reputation for scoring tries but found himself playing in the centre in Leicester’s first game of the season: 14 of his 20 starts have come in the midfield and all four appearances from the bench. He first partnered Tuilagi last month and the pair have appeared together four times with the Tigers winning on each occasion.

“Aaron wanted me to get my hands on the ball earlier and picked me in the centre,” said Betham. “I had never played there for a full game professionally and, excited as I was about seeing more of the ball, I was a bit anxious defensively; as a wing, you only make one or two tackles a game and now I am making 12 or more. Outside-centre is a very hard position to defend but I have got used to it.

“Manu and I chop and change; I will be at 12 at times and he will be at 13. With England it is about finding a 13 to complement Manu. He is more than a big bloke; there are a number of subtleties to his game you have not seen. He has a very good grubber and long ball and all these things will come in time the more he plays at 12.

“Aaron takes the centres under his wing a lot and there are a number of skills sessions we do personally. Manu’s skill set will grow and I dread to find out how good he will become. We do the sessions with Aaron at the end of training. He takes Manu and me aside and drills into us the subtleties to 12 and 13 and they become second nature. He has focus points for us during the week, 20 minutes at a time on and off during the week and he makes sure we do them in the team sessions.”

Racing have their own southern hemisphere influence through Joe Rokocoko and Juan Imhoff on the wings, the centre Casey Laulala and the New Zealand outside-half Dan Carter, a former Super rugby and international team-mate of Mauger’s. “They have a lot of firepower behind,” said Betham. “You have to keep one eye on Carter and the other on the rest of them. Carter was a good general against Toulon [in the quarter-final] in the way he directed Racing. He puts his teams in the right areas at the right times and it seems like he has so much time on his hands when other 10s probably get frazzled and blitzed. He is very calm in the moment.”

Betham will return to Australia for a holiday in the summer, planning to take in England’s tour there. “I would love Australia to get the wins but the Leicester guys to do well,” he said. “Ben Youngs and Danny Care are thriving under Eddie Jones and what you are seeing with England now is that the numbers on the backs of the players do not define how they play. They will be a dangerous team and it should be a good series, interesting to see where each team is at. If Manu gets into the team he will get me a ticket, but I have told him not to think about me wearing any white because that will not happen.

“Last year’s World Cup reflected rugby in the two hemispheres, but England’s game has grown since then. Eddie Jones has done pretty well: Manu talks about him a lot, positively. He is relaxed and calm as a coach and gives players belief. They are less rigid in the way they play the game: the likes of Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell were never really unleashed in the World Cup, but they can become dominant in world rugby. The southern hemisphere influence has been good for English rugby.”

• This is an extract taken from The Breakdown, the Guardian’s weekly rugby union email. To subscribe, just visit this page, find The Breakdown and follow the instructions.