Midweek in Leicester and Australian accents are everywhere. Heading up the operation this season is Matt O’Connor, fluent Strine speaker with extensive coaching experience in both hemispheres. Finally fit again after a frustrating nine-month absence is the Wallaby centre Matt Toomua, perhaps the Premiership’s most creative overseas back now Kurtley Beale has gone home. Short of signing Dame Edna Everage and swapping to green and gold jerseys, the Tigers have every Australian base covered.
Toomua, in an effort to make himself useful while recovering from a major knee operation, has even assumed the role of in-house barista, serving up flat whites so good that the entire squad form an orderly queue. “When I was injured, training would be done by about 10.30am so I thought: ‘I’ve got to do something for the guys,’” he says. “We got a commercial espresso machine installed in the club, I started making coffees for everyone and it kind of took off.
“It’s always pretty easy when it’s an addictive drug you’re serving up. There are probably half a dozen players with proper machines at home now. I don’t know how happy the wives are that I’ve increased their monthly spend.”
The England winger Jonny May is his latest wannabe apprentice although Toomua reports mediocre results: “No one wants his coffee because it tastes rubbish. He made one for the coach today and Matty just threw it out. At least he’s trying.” Manu Tuilagi, in contrast, has become a serious expert, the consolatory bonus of his own lengthy injury absences.
Leicester, though, did not sign Toomua, who owns coffee shops in Canberra, for his expertise on the subject of coffee beans and patterned froth. Nor did the player hand in his Wallaby badge to sit around in cafes all day. Both parties have had to be patient but, with Castres the visitors at Welford Road in the Champions Cup on Saturday, the classy Wallaby is finally around to offer George Ford support at 12 and to give Leicester’s attacking game a fresh dimension. “Matt is very good at seeing space,” says Ben Youngs, as excited as anyone by his side’s attacking potential. “It’s so natural for him he doesn’t have to think about it. Him and George are really enjoying playing together. They’re helping each other’s game and that’s only going to benefit us as a side.”
Which perfectly sums up the beauty of the top-drawer overseas signing – and the privilege of being able to import such a luxury. Toomua is refreshingly honest about his chief motivation for leaving Australia – “speaking frankly, you don’t get paid as much” – but, as the Toulon-bound Rhys Webb is discovering, overseas-based players cannot have it all. As is now the case in Wales, only players with 60 caps can represent Australia if based abroad. Toomua has 33, which means he, like Webb, cannot feature in the 2019 World Cup unless he signs a contract at home.
Unfair or the price to be paid for living offshore? Webb’s supporters argue the former but, either way, Toomua sees no immediate end to the tide of expensive muscle flowing into the English and French leagues: “Those market forces are not going to disappear. If anything, the gap’s getting bigger. It’s probably something that is going to have to be dealt with a lot more down south.”
While he admits it can be tough watching the Wallabies, who are facing New Zealand in Brisbane , he says: “I knew what I was getting myself into and I’m more than comfortable with that decision.”
In the 27-year-old’s case, the calculations were more personal than most. He has an unfortunate history of concussion – including four separate incidences in the Rugby Championship in three seasons – which meant cashing in his international chips for a lucrative overseas contract was not exactly a left-field option. He also happens to be one half of his country’s most remarkable sporting couple: his wife, Ellyse Perry, has the distinction of being the only Australian of either sex to have played in both a cricket and a football World Cup.
This summer their career paths briefly dovetailed when Perry, a defender who scored for her country in a World Cup quarter-final and a pace-bowling all-rounder set to play in the forthcoming Women’s Ashes, was in the UK representing Australia and Loughborough Lightning. For now, though, it is a case of professional separation until it is time to settle down and hatch some more Aussie internationals. “We’ve got plenty of years to get sick of each other later on in life,” says Toomua, glossing over the short-term sacrifices. “We’re in a special time now in terms of opportunity. If we didn’t take it, we’d be pretty disappointed later on.”
At least Toomua’s injury, sustained almost exactly a year ago against Racing 92 in round two of Europe, allowed the pair some time to explore the rest of the continent, not least Dubrovnik “because I love Game of Thrones”. Next on the list is to win some big European games with Tigers alongside Ford, with whom he has clearly formed a bond. “We both really like rugby and talk about it a lot. He is one of the smartest players I’ve come across, right up there with the 10s I’ve played with. We just pick each other’s brains and see what we’re thinking in certain places. It’s his composure that really sets him apart. You don’t see him yelling, his hair doesn’t move, he doesn’t get flustered. Roger Federer doesn’t sweat and he’s probably the same. I’m pretty fortunate to play around guys like that.”
The Tigers are equally lucky to have their smart, affable, talented Wallaby. O’Connor calls him “as good a distributor as there is” and Toomua also believes he can offer a slightly different mindset – “When backs in Australia do extra work-ons it’s passing and kicking; here a lot of it is in the gym” – to the Midlands norm. The accelerating modern game is becoming less about crash-ball 12s and more about clever second distributors. The dextrous centre, when fit, is among the very best.
May’s current scoring streak of seven tries in seven games – “He keeps telling everyone he’s the new Jamie Vardy,” says Youngs – certainly owes a debt to the creative architects inside him. By the sound of it, Toomua is also in no particular rush to fly home: “My mind is very firmly here, especially after not really playing last season. I want to have a few good years here.” Australia’s significant loss is increasingly Leicester’s gain.
