Rugby Union / Ralph Ellis / 29 January 2009 / Leave a comment

After the news that Heyneke Meyer will not be returning to Leicester Tigers, Ralph Ellis wonders Richard Cockerill has what it takes to make the step up to director of rugby.

Probably the hardest transition in sport is the step from assistant to boss. The last couple of football seasons have been littered with the bodies of those who've tried to make the move and failed to bridge the gap.

Sammy Lee and Chris Hutchings were the two most spectacular failures last year at Bolton and Wigan respectively. Both did great jobs as right hand men to Sam Allardyce and Paul Jewell and then flopped totally when they took charge. Tony Adams, a perfect foil for Harry Redknapp when Portsmouth were winning the FA Cup, is now battling not to join the same casualty list since being left holding the fort.

There's no reason to think that what's true in football won't apply to any other sport. And so you have to worry for the prospects of Leicester Tigers now that director of rugby Heyneke Meyer has confirmed he won't be coming back from South Africa. After just 17 matches in charge he's returned home to where, sadly, both his parents have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses.

That leaves Richard Cockerill in charge, and a giant question mark hanging over what happens next at Welford Road. The club are [4.6] favourites to be Grand Final winners at the end of the Guinness Premiership season, but with the problems now ahead of them that has to be one to lay.

Cockerill has done the job of caretaker before, of course. And he's proved a safe pair of hands in the last couple of weeks while Meyer was making his decision about whether to come back to England.

But even he admits that the long term job is a different matter, and that can only create instability within the club for the remainder of the season. The short term impetus of a new man in charge is very quickly lost when nobody is quite sure who is making decisions, especially at a time when players are wondering and worrying about their next contract.

Cockerill has told today's papers: "It is a very different position from coaching because 50 per cent of your work is off the field, and I have to decide whether that is what I want to do. I have never courted the position. I didn't apply for the job before, or after Marcelo Loffreda left, and I am happy with what I am doing at the club."

That doesn't fill you with confidence for Leicester's Heineken Cup prospects either. They are likely to switch their quarter-final against Bath to The Walkers Stadium to meet the demand for tickets, and the last thing they would want preparing for such a massive game is intrigue and gossip about who will take over.

Leicester also have a decision over whether to go with Cockerill or follow the modern trend to seek a coach from the Southern hemisphere. If that's the case then a return for Pat Howard, the Australian who took them to their last Premiership title in 2007, seems the most likely answer.

Five things you might not know about Richard Cockerill

1. Born in 1970 in the town of Rugby, he says he got his aggressive streak from competing with his brother John who was "faster, classier and cleverer at everything"

2. He worked as a cabinet maker for four years before joining Leicester Tigers aged 20

3. He won 27 England caps but was most famous for standing a yard from All Blacks hooker Norm Hewitt and eyeballing him during the Haka

4. He was dropped by Clive Woodward and never picked again as punishment for criticising the England coach in his book. "England went on to win the World Cup so who was the fool?", he admits now.

5. In his last spell as caretaker at the start of the 2007-8 season he took Tigers to top of the table despite being without 12 top players during the World Cup.