Who is to blame?

Leeds Carnegie rugby club is in turmoil, again. The 3-year plan of the management team is in tatters and the Leicester duo, Back and Key, have gone - Key sacked & I suspect Back resigned before he too was axed.

So what went wrong and who is to blame? The second year of the plan had been a success in that the club had avoided relegation. When Neil Back trumpeted his "top 6 finish" as the third phase of the plan we thought that a mid-table finish was on the cards.

The pre-season was an absolute disaster. To my mind things had started to go wrong before then. I had heard that we were signing Charlie Hodgson from Sale. His body language, when seen on TV, said that he wanted away. I am sure that the Leeds management thought he was coming, hence the lack of any other decent stand-off in the close season signings. For whatever reason Charlie changed his mind & we were left scrabbling for decent players who could perhaps fill the 10 shirt. We ended up with a decent, injury-prone 12 who, to my way of thinking, did not fill the 10 shirt in any way, shape or form.

That was the start of the season-long failure to move up to the "next level". Everything else was incidental. No number 10 = no success! Therefore I have no hesitation in pointing the finger at a certain Yorkshireman from Halifax (not Mallinder this time) and saying;

                                        "Charlie - it's your fault!"