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Head coach Aaron Mauger thinks the Tigers board would consider the former England coach
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Martin Johnson has been away from rugby since he was let go by England in 2011
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Mauger will remain in interim charge at Leicester until the end of the season
Interim boss Aaron Mauger has admitted Leicester Tigers will “probably” run the rule over former captain Martin Johnson as a potential replacement for Richard Cockerill.
Former England head coach Johnson spent his entire career at Welford Road, although he has never been a boss at club level.
Head coach Mauger will remain in interim charge at Leicester until the end of the season, while the Tigers chase a new director of rugby.
Cockerill was sacked on Monday after consecutive league defeats to Exeter and Saracens, which followed closely from on from an embaressing 38-0 European loss at Munster.
Asked if former England coach and Leicester lock Johnson could replace Cockerill, Mauger said: “That’s other boys’ decision, but he’s probably one guy you’d look at.
“He’s obviously a Leicester legend. I’m sure as the board go through the process of the coaching structure they’ll look at all those options. I haven’t thought about it too much to be fair. I’m (in) interim charge, till the end of the season. That’s the brief.”
Asked if he would put himself forward as a replacement for Cockerill, Mauger continued: “I haven’t really had time to focus on those things, I just want to get it right for the group at the moment.
“What they need is my energy for the challenge this week and make sure we get today and tomorrow right, then put in a good performance at Wasps on Sunday.”
The former All Black centre also claimed he retains a strong relationship with Cockerill.
“Cockers and I knew there would be a lot of differences between us but we thought that could be a good thing,” said Mauger.
“Personally we get on really well. But in terms of coaching relationships we probably have lots of fundamental differences of philosophy in how to play and how you train to the point where I’d be saying ‘black’ and Cockers would be saying ‘white’.
“When you have too many differences it is often hard to give clarity to people going forward and that is probably where we came a bit unstuck.
“Personally, we get along well but unfortunately those barriers we couldn’t work through and that hasn’t been helped by the fact that we’ve not been able to transfer all the good stuff onto the field consistently.”