Archive June 10, 2025

Premiership Rugby Grand Final – Leicester v Bath

Michael Cheika nodded his head and shrugged his shoulders as he freely accepted Bath go into Saturday’s Premiership Grand Final as overwhelming favourites against his Leicester Tigers side.

But it is not as if the Leicester head coach or his Tigers players will care.

“I know we will be doubted and probably for good reason from the results and the table,” the 58-year-old Australian told BBC Radio Leicester.

“The important thing is that from inside the team and the group of people we have around, that we don’t doubt and that we have belief.”

Tigers finished second in the table, 11 points adrift of a Bath side looking to complete a trophy treble, having already claimed the European Challenge Cup and Premiership Rugby Cup this season.

Bath were the first side to inflict a Premiership defeat on Tigers during Cheika’s one-season reign, when they edged past the East Midlands club at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in September.

Bath’s head of rugby Johann van Graan has previously said the Somerset club are “comfortable with being favourites”.

Equally, Cheika says the role Leicester have been cast in and the widely predicted script suits his side.

“I can understand the predictions and why they make them, whether they are done from data or delivered by experts,” the Tigers boss said.

“Come Saturday, we are going to be playing against a team that will be well fancied, who have dominated the season so far.

“We have strong self-belief internally and that will be something that will be really important. That is something we have built up over the season.

“But this is a good opportunity for us to use that belief in ourselves, because what that gives you is a hand in knowing what you will have to do.

“You will see in your mind when you close your eyes, what do I have to do in this game to get to where I want to go? It’s not actually the end, where you have got the prize, but seeing what you need to do in order to get it.”

The weeks leading up to Tigers’ attempt to secure a record-extending 12th Premiership title have been dominated by the impending mass exodus of star figures.

Living Leicester legends Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, as well as decorated former England team-mate Mike Brown, will retire at full-time on Saturday.

Cheika’s one-year stint at the helm will end too, in what is also a farewell match for captain Julian Montoya and two-time World Cup-winning South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard.

While the head coach is flying his wife and children over for the Twickenham decider, and playfully grimaces at the cost of doing so, he insists romanticising about leaving Leicester with the Premiership trophy in hand will not help their cause this week.

“We want to win for everyone,” Cheika said.

“That title is no more important to them [the departing players] than it is for the other guys, or the guys that don’t play, or the support team, or the crowd.

“It’s a club, mate, and we are all part of the club.

“Being the first of a lot of things comes with misunderstanding at times, and criticism,” says Temba Bavuma, in a gentle tone.

South Africa’s first black African captain is preparing to take on Australia in this week’s ICC World Test Championship Final at Lord’s.

While the Proteas achieved number one in the world Test rankings in 2012, beating the defending champions in a showpiece final would be the country’s most significant cricketing achievement.

Few people tip South Africa to win, but 35-year-old Bavuma is used to dealing with adversity.

He is acutely aware of his own significance as South Africa’s first black African batter and first black African to score a Test century as well as the country’s first black African captain.

All this during South Africa’s post-apartheid era of transformation, where selection policies across domestic and international cricket have been influenced by racial quotas.

More than a decade on from his Test debut in 2014, it would be easy to understand if Bavuma is tired of talking about race. But he leans forward and speaks calmly and evenly about experiences that continue to shape him.

“The mere fact I was the first black African brought a different narrative and connotation to it,” explains Bavuma.

“It can come with criticism. Sometimes unwarranted criticism. I haven’t been short of that.

After a lean couple of years at the start of his Test career, his maiden century was expected to put such notions to bed.

It was wildly celebrated, no more so than in Bavuma’s home township of Langa in Cape Town.

A match report from January 2016, when he made an unbeaten hundred against England at Newlands said: “Temba Bavuma: Depicted as a quota cricketer no longer.” It wasn’t as simple as that though.

“When I scored the hundred, it didn’t really dispel that,” adds Bavuma, without a hint of self-pity or bitterness.

“It’s not nice when you have to deal with it. But the longer you survive within international cricket, within the Proteas, you grow a thick skin.”

Bavuma speaks thoughtfully about the attention associated with being ‘a first’.

“The expectation and pressure that comes with being a black African cricketer within that system, within the team, there’s a lot of opportunity and privilege that comes with that,” he says.

“I learned quite quickly it wasn’t just about me having a passion for the game and working hard. It meant a lot more.

“It was quite difficult to embrace the baggage, the pressure, the expectation and the criticism as well. But in my older years I’ve found it mentally easier to deal with.

Bavuma was appointed Test captain by head coach Shukri Conrad, who took over in January 2023. Conrad began his playing career when South Africa was under apartheid rule and cricket was racially segregated.

“When he told me I’d be Test captain, my first question was, ‘Why?’ – because I’d felt it was this honour and privilege that you just had to accept,” says Bavuma.

“When he unequivocally said, ‘You’re the best player in the team and you’re the best person to lead it,’ that gave me a lot of confidence and comfort to step into those shoes.”

Trust and empathy are two qualities Bavuma emphasises when describing his relationship with Conrad.

After a Test series thrashing by Australia in 2022-23, Conrad, 58, took the time to sit with Bavuma and allowed him to open up.

“He asked really direct questions, more pertaining to the actual person, how I was, apart from the cricketer,” enthuses Bavuma.

“He really helped me get to a space where I could just enjoy cricket. That was a tough period in my career when you never really felt you could speak to anyone in and around the system.

“He can resonate with a lot of the struggles and experiences I faced as a cricketer. A lot of trust, through the vulnerability he allowed me to show, was built from that.”

And what of Bavuma’s own leadership style?

“As a captain, there’ll always be the essence of putting the team first, but I try to make sure my game is in order then try to empower the guys around me,” he says.

“It becomes a collective leadership style, freeing up the guys to be themselves and play their best cricket. That’s allowed this Test team to get to this point.

“It will definitely be a highlight in my career, just being there in the final at Lord’s against Australia.”

Bavuma advocates for blood cancer awareness and stem cell research, trying to encourage people to register as donors. He was humbled recently to meet a 14-year-old boy who faces challenges far greater than those on the cricket field.

Iminathi was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia and is struggling to find a stem cell donor. Non-white patients in South Africa often face difficulties in finding a match because of underrepresentation in donor registries.

“He’s dealing with blood cancer,” says Bavuma, matter-of-factly. “For sportspeople, winning and losing is everything. But here’s a boy battling every day to keep going and he still sees joy within his life.

“It strengthens the perspective on what’s really important.”

Through his advocacy, Bavuma discovered his own grandmother died of leukaemia, but his mother and uncle never talked about it.

“It was something they brushed under the carpet,” he adds.

“Me putting my voice behind it made it easier for them to deal with those scars.

“They also gave me insight into the misconceptions that exist, at least within my black culture, where people are not well informed about things like blood cancer. We always blame it on cultural or spiritual aspects.

South Africa have faced scrutiny during their run to the final.

The Proteas won eight of their 12 Tests in this cycle, while Australia won 13 of 19.

Only Bangladesh played as few matches as South Africa, leading to criticism by former England captain Michael Vaughan that the Proteas had qualified on “on the back of beating pretty much nobody”.

South Africa’s pathway included series wins against Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home, West Indies and Bangladesh away, a home draw with India, and a defeat in New Zealand. “Not nobodies,” as coach Conrad strongly pointed out.

Yet South Africa have no home men’s Tests scheduled for 2025-26. Bavuma would like to play more.

“Yes please!” he pleads exaggeratedly, before the question is barely finished.

“We’ve got to keep playing good cricket. That’s the only way we’ll make it attractive for other bigger nations to want to play us.

Scotland defender Kieran Tierney has completed his planned return to Celtic, signing a five-year contract after leaving Arsenal.

The 28-year-old left-back departed Glasgow for the north London club in a £25m deal in 2019 and made 144 appearances, scoring six times, including one in his final game.

Prior to that, he played 170 times for Celtic, netting eight times, and later made 26 appearances on loan to Real Sociedad from Arsenal. He won his 50th Scotland cap in Friday’s home loss to Iceland and has one international goal.

“Everybody’s known for a few months and just to be here with the Celtic strip on again just feels amazing.

“When you move away from home, you grow up, you learn different things. I was in Spain for a year, learning a different language and playing in a different league, so I’m definitely a different person.

“Player-wise, it’s the same as I always say – I’ll try and work my hardest, I’ll do my best for the club and that’s all I can do.”

Tierney had gone on loan to Sociedad after falling out of favour under Mikel Arteta amid injury problems and failed to become a regular starter on his return, and all but four of his 20 appearances this season were as a substitute.

While in the final few months of his contract at Arsenal, Tierney’s return to Celtic Park had been confirmed in February.

This season, Brendan Rodgers’ side won the Scottish Premiership and League Cup, while also reaching the knockout stage of the Champions League.

The Celtic boss said: “He is such a talented, high quality player and he will be a massive addition to our squad.

“We are so pleased to bring such an elite player back to the club and I look forward to working with him again and the rest of the squad, as we face the many challenges ahead at home and in Europe.”

Former Celtic and Scotland captain Scott Brown

He’s a very, very good character in and about the place. Everyone loves him because whoever he goes to, he gives 110%. You can see how good he’s got going down the road, working with probably even better quality players as well, playing in the Champions League, then going away to Spain.

It’s a really good fit for the club and also a really good fit for him as well.

He’s nowhere near coming to the end of his career. He’s still got a long, long way to go and he’ll probably say, ‘can I go and win trophies, can I go and show that I’m a top quality player as well?’ and go again.