Latest news with #EmekaIlione
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Aussie coach Cheika seethes on his English farewell
Michael Cheika's hopes of leaving his latest coaching job at English giants Leicester with a trophy have been dashed as his farewell was ruined by a narrow 23-21 loss to Bath in the Premiership final at Twickenham. The combative Australian, who coached the Wallabies to the World Cup final at the same venue a decade ago, was frustrated to bow out with a defeat, and vented his irritation about the officiating of the showpiece fixture on Saturday. Cheika declared the decision to send his Tigers prop Dan Cole to the sin bin as "embarrassing for the game" after a late Emeka Ilione try for Leicester proved not quite enough to drag them to a late victory. A brotherhood 🤝Michael Cheika has helped create a special bond between the @LeicesterTigers players 🐯#GallagherPremFinal — Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) June 14, 2025 Yet Ilione's score would have given Cheika's team the lead if not for the penalty that Finn Russell put over after Cole had been penalised over a collision with the Scottish star flyhalf. England prop Cole, in his last game before retirement, was sent to the sin bin, leaving Cheika to fume over both that decision and the earlier card for a high tackle from Leicester captain Julian Montoya. "I thought we got nothing back from the referee at all and we kept on coming back and turning up," lamented Cheika. "We scored three tries to two, that tells you something. I'm super proud of the players. "Two men in the bin - the second one for nothing, really. It is embarrassing for the game that someone goes off for that. I'm allowed to be angry, but I'm over it and happy to accept the result now and get on with the next thing." It represented an anti-climactic farewell for not just Cheika and Cole, but also Ben Youngs, the highest capped Englishman in international history. Cheika reckoned he had to hold his tongue in his post-match press conference too as he reflected on the performance of referee Karl Dickson. "For me personally, if the game is sending players to the sin bin for that, or even penalising…what do I say mate? "If I say something, I'll get myself in strife and take away from the other team. I just have to beat myself up inside and try and keep as much as I can inside. "I've got my feelings on the referee's performance but I'll take that up with [head of refereeing] Paul Hull as one last final…banter, let's say." Cheika, at 58, decided in January not to extend his stay at the club which he's helped rejuvenate in his one season in charge. Next season, Geoff Parling, the former Leicester and England lock who's been a key assistant to Joe Schmidt with the Wallabies, will take the reins. The moment the treble winners were crowned! 👑@BathRugby have reached the promised land! 😍#GallagherPremFinal #GallagherPrem — Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) June 14, 2025 For winners Bath, it was the end of a 29-year wait for a Premiership title as they secured a famous treble following their Premiership Cup and European Challenge Cup wins. Tries by Thomas du Toit and Max Ojomoh had given Bath a healthy lead in the second half, only for Leicester, seeking a record-extending 12th title, to hit back with tries by former Tongan NRL star Solomone Kata and Ilione to set up a nail-biting finale.
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
Bath's Ben Spencer says ‘the sky's the limit' after they wrap up historic treble
Bath held on after a late Tigers surge narrowed the deficit to two points – despite going down to 14 men after Cole was controversially sent to the sin bin – through a late Emeka Ilione try to raise the Twickenham tension. 'Just relief, pride,' said Spencer, when asked to sum up his feelings. 'This has taken a lot of hard work from a lot of people. Relief not just for me, but for the players, the staff, and the fans. The fans are a massive part of why I joined the club. 'I think the future of this club is unbelievably bright, no matter who pulls on the shirt. I can't speak highly enough of the guys coming through. Their work ethic is second to none, and as long as we keep our feet on the floor and wanting to get better, the sky's the limit for this team.' Bath's tries came from Thomas du Toit and Max Ojomoh on what became a brilliant afternoon for Scotland's Finn Russell, who overcame early frustrations to kick 13 points, also teeing up Ojomoh after snatching an interception from inside his own half. Jack van Poortvliet opened the scoring with a try for Leicester, while second-half tries from Solomone Kata and Ilione nearly sparked a comeback. Handre Pollard added three Leicester conversions but the World Cup-winning South African fly-half will rue what might have been after a rare penalty miss. Bath Rugby are Premiership Champions!! 🔵⚫️⚪️ — Bath Rugby (@BathRugby) June 14, 2025 Tigers twice had men sent to the sin bin – departing captain Julian Montoya late in the first half, while Cole's swansong concluded unceremoniously with a controversial yellow. Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan said: 'Our whole focus this season was on winning the Premiership. We gave ourselves that goal, kept that within the circle.' The South African coach said he would now pause for a moment of reflection before focusing on next season. He added: 'The day you stand still is the day somebody catches you. You must always train like number two because the other guys are coming. The best is yet to come.' A season we will never forget. Fighting until the very end for one another. #COYT 🐯 — Leicester Tigers (@LeicesterTigers) June 14, 2025 Leicester head coach Michael Cheika – to be replaced by Geoff Parling – will leave this summer at the end of his one-year contract, in addition to Argentina hooker Montoya, Pollard and former England back Mike Brown. And although he felt he would get himself 'in strife' for disclosing what he felt about some of the decisions that went against his side – vowing to take it up with the RFU's officiating chief Paul Hull as a 'final bit of banter' – Cheika was delighted by his team's resilience and felt the future of the club was bright. He added: 'I feel like if we can take those things that are intangible around belief and the standards you need to have to be able to compete, then it won't be long before they are on that podium themselves.'
Telegraph
15-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Emeka Ilione: The medical student battering his way towards England
Leicester Tigers' super-sub Emeka Ilione talks a lot about making an impact, although where and when these impacts are made can look very different. Last Thursday afternoon, the 23-year-old was on a ward providing support to dementia patients at Highbury Hospital in Nottingham as part of his placement for his medical degree. A little over 24 hours later, the flanker came off the bench to score two tries in Leicester's crucial 44-34 victory over Sale Sharks to spark raucous scenes at Welford Road. Job done thinks Michael Cheika, the Leicester head coach. 'He's making an impact as far as the game is concerned,' Cheika said. 'That's his job. That's all we want him to do. He is a very impressive young man.' Ilione is in his fourth year of his degree at the University of Nottingham, and is hoping to follow in a rich tradition of rugby players turned doctors such as Jonathan Webb, Brendan Venter and Jamie Roberts. Indeed, it was Roberts, the former Wales centre who graduated from Cardiff University School of Medicine in 2013, who provided a reference to the university explaining that it was possible to balance a full-time degree with being a professional rugby player. This is not without its considerable challenges. As Ilione explains, both the university and the club are incredibly supportive but he cannot skimp on either his studies or his training. In effect, this means Ilione is generally either in his kit or his scrubs 12 hours a day, seven days a week. He cannot remember when he last had a full day off from rugby and medicine. 'I am expected to do just as much as any other medical student and rightly so – if you are going to be a doctor you need to do all the training,' Ilione said. 'I do the same hours as everyone else; my timetable is slightly different in that regard. There's a lot of self-directed study time and it is organised around my training. Post-training, I will go straight to the clinic or the ward or if there is teaching. 'It is interesting at times, but it is definitely worth it. The rugby was almost like a no-brainer for me in terms of getting the opportunity to play at the highest level with your mates and push yourself physically. Medicine was always something I wanted to do and the ability to have big impacts on people's lives. 'It is such a privilege that people will tell you things that they may not have told anyone else in their lives. To be with them in that moment is why I wanted to do it. For some patients, I am someone different: I am not their doctor or their nurse, I am someone they can have a chat with. There's value in that. You get to know some patients really quite well so when a patient you spend a lot of time with passes, it is difficult. But that's the nature of medicine.' It might not seem to be a coincidence that Exeter winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, another player of Nigerian descent, is also doing a full-time medicine degree. The stereotype of Nigerian parents pushing their children to academic excellence has a certain grain of truth in it, but Ilione says the decision to combine rugby and medicine was entirely his. 'My parents were saying 'do you realise how hard it is going to be?'' Ilione said. 'If you are going to do it, do it fully. Don't commit to it by half. But I said if you give your best and succeed then how good would that be?'' Borthwick influence He also owes a considerable debt of thanks to Steve Borthwick, his first head coach at Leicester. 'I was initially going to go to university in London, but on A-Level results day I had a conversation with Steve who pointed out how hard it was going to be to play for Leicester and study in London,' Ilione said. 'In my head, I thought I would just get on the train and come back but then I had a conversation with my parents and we realised that it would be better to go somewhere a lot closer. 'My first three years were under Steve so he shaped my idea and understanding of what it takes to be a professional rugby player. When he joined, I had just come out of school and it was a tough learning curve, but it was what I needed to be.' On the pitch, Ilione has enjoyed a breakout season for Leicester as a momentum-changing replacement, particularly with his jackalling ability at the breakdown. A former England Under-20 captain, Ilione's physical potential was clear, but it has taken ex-Australia head coach Cheika to unlock it by simplifying his role. 'I am an over-thinker,' Ilione said. 'I like to study and analyse things. That's probably why I enjoy medicine. Cheiks has stripped it all back and I am now playing without thinking. You can think during the week, but in a game it is all straight reaction. That's probably the main difference. I feel like I am a second quicker to do everything. I am able to play without over-thinking in my head which has been incredibly beneficial. 'I have been really fortunate to have Cheiks and the coaching group work really hard to take my game to the next level. I don't think it was a technical thing, more of a mindset thing of having that belief in yourself to go and do the things the coaches obviously believe I can do and just put that on the pitch. 'It has been a progression around how I feel in myself and having the belief in myself to go and do what I am doing. Having that trust and absolute clarity that when I carry the ball, I am not just carrying to set something up, I am carrying to get over the gain line.' Ilione is keen to point out his pair of tries against Sale were both from mauls so were really a collective effort for the forwards. Comeback complete ✅ Emeka Ilione's second try wraps up a 44-34 win over Sale Sharks to strengthen Leicester Tigers' grip on second in the #GallagherPrem table 👏 Look at what it means. — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) May 9, 2025 He takes far more pride in the jackal penalty he won moments after coming on, which is increasingly becoming his calling card. 'It is an opportunity to have a big impact on games,' Ilione said. 'That's part of the mindset of doing your job for the team but also making a huge impact as opposed to just doing your job but being hidden away. 'Those big moments in defence when you have been on the back foot for 20 phases and the boys are working so hard and then you get that opportunity to jackal and relieve that pressure… I just love that feeling.' The Premiership is overflowing with outstanding jackallers, but none may be harder to shift than Ilione once he is locked on, which is why he might yet be in with an outside shot of touring Argentina with England this summer. 'That feeling when you are over the ball, it is my favourite part of the game,' Ilione said. 'When you are clamped on and you might be able to see in your peripheral vision that someone is coming in from a distance to absolutely whack you but if you have a good grip and a good base then I'm not moving.'
