Richard Cockerill would not make an ideal host on Come Dine With Me. His dining table, he says, is not big enough. Then there is the issue of finding sufficient friends to invite, particularly among those who have departed Leicester since he has been in charge. “I’d just have fish and chips on my own,” says the Tigers’ director of rugby, swiftly giving up on picking his dream guest list. “I like my own company – that’s how most other people like it, too!”
It is a characteristic Cockerill punchline: entertaining, opinionated and containing a potential grain of truth. This weekend marks the seventh anniversary of his appointment as Leicester’s head honcho. Almost every season has been an emotional big dipper with the occasional title thrown in; no English club boss calls a spade a shovel with greater relish. “I’m not a sensitive, fluffy type of person,” he confirms, fixing his interviewer with the direct, blue-eyed stare of a man unlikely to talk touchy-feely drivel with the bloke from the Guardian.
On an early spring day in the east Midlands, nevertheless, he cannot sidestep the brightening outlook for his beloved Tigers. Beating Northampton on Saturday should seal a Premiership play-off place alongside next week’s European semi-final against Racing 92. Top quality reinforcements are due this summer, his head coach, Aaron Mauger, is transforming the team’s back-line potency and last season’s infamous 45-0 defeat to Bath is dipped in sepia. Saracens won last year’s Premiership title from fourth place and it would be just like Leicester to do likewise.
For a coach who prefers having something to rail against – “My personality is probably more suited to dealing with adversity than things going well” – this is uneasy territory. Yet, even if nirvana proves elusive, Cockerill has already overseen a significant long-term transformation.
For too long Leicester clung doggedly to old-school forward-based orthodoxies. Since Mauger’s return – the All Black centre helped Leicester to a domestic title and a European final as a player in 2009 – attitudes have been less rigid. “Two or three years ago that probably was my mentality,” Cockerill admits.
“This is what we do, this is how we do it and if you don’t fit in, tough. My personality is that people should see things how I see them but the modern player is very different to the ones I grew up with. I have to park my ego ... ultimately if you don’t evolve you get left behind.”
Along the way, to put it mildly, the former England hooker has had his share of fall-outs. “When I first started I had to be in charge of everything. It was probably born out of my own insecurity. I’m not sure I’m easy to work with now but I was difficult to work with then. Everything had to be right and, if it wasn’t, I was quite hard on everybody.”
While he regrets his acrimonious spat with Martin Castrogiovanni – “I probably could have handled that better ... but so could he” – he would change nothing. “Thomas Waldrom has done fantastic things at Exeter but I’m all right with that. I was the one who signed him to replace Lewis Moody but he wasn’t playing well for us so he was no use to us.” A momentary pause. “I’m learning it’s sometimes better not to say anything but that’s not my nature. I still think emotion’s really good. I just find it really hard to keep it bottled in.”
Mauger, either way, has been a calming influence. The Kiwi suggests his colleague is not quite a reformed man – “We’re getting there” – but Cockerill is visibly relieved to have such a seasoned lieutenant.
“For the last two years I’d been doing pretty much everything. That puts a lot of stress on your brain space. When you’ve got a small brain that’s difficult. Sometimes I’ve managed people really poorly ... I act in haste and repent at leisure, that’s my nature. But I’m 45 now so I should know better. You should choose how you behave rather than let your emotions dictate.”
This own-brand Zen outlook is about to be tested in the fierce crucible of a vital east Midlands derby. Cockerill has previous in this fixture, including being suspended for nine games for directing “obscene, inappropriate and unprofessional” language at the fourth official in the 2013 Premiership final. “What I’ve learned – mainly through getting banned – is to leave the coaching box and go straight to the changing-room,” he confesses. “I still don’t quite trust myself. The ranting and raving bit is still there but what’s the point? Get banned on Monday and it mucks everything else up.”
Quite. Remaining politely silent during games remains a foreign concept, even so. “Aaron can’t believe we sit in the middle of the supporters. In Super Rugby there’s a coaches’ box and you’re out of the way. A lot of things get said. It’s all right for them to say: ‘Cockerill you’re a fucking cheat’ but it’s not all right for me to tell them to fuck off. You have to be holier than thou.”
If necessary, though, he will always back his players. “If I feel the right thing is to go on to the field and discuss something with a player or the officials I’ll do it. When [Northampton’s] Calum Clark did what he did to Rob Hawkins [who suffered a broken elbow at Franklin’s Gardens in 2012] that’s just not right. Fuck the protocols. I’m looking after my players and the team. I think that’s important.”
Classic, confrontational Cockers. Next year it will be 25 years since he left Coventry to join the Tigers yet his enthusiasm is undiluted. “You have to be true to yourself. There are only so many things you can learn out of a book or go on a course to discover. Maybe it’s because I’m not an academic and I dislike reading but I think the really good professionals learn by experience.
“I am what I am. I’ve never pretended to be anything different. I read something from a former player who said I was really lucky because I’d just worked with really good people. What I’d say is that I’ve been really smart because I’ve employed the right people.”
Leicester may occasionally get beaten but their spiritual leader will never be lost for words.
