Vesty goes into the match on a roll, having been the Tigers’ outstanding player in recent weeks, scoring their only try in last weekend’s away win over London Irish. Nobody is happier with him than Pat Howard, the Leicester coach, who is the mastermind behind his transformation from replacement fly-half to immaculate full-back.
Howard says, with specific reference to Vesty’s superb fielding of the high ball and stonewall tackling: “Sam’s the Rock of Gibraltar for me: in certain games, in certain conditions, he’s faultless. The skills he shows around the field, particularly his hand-eye coordination, are superb. As you will see against Stade, we don’t always use him at 15; we chop and change because he has unique skills.”
Having been in and out of the Leicester line-up until this season, Vesty knows what it means to be out in the cold, and the ebb and flow in his fortunes have dovetailed uncannily with Leicester’s European clashes with Stade, the Parisian high-rollers who, since their 34-30 defeat in the epic 2001 final, have beaten the Tigers in their last three meetings. Two years ago, Vesty scored his first European try in the 26-15 away loss to Stade, in his first appearance at full-back, but when Leicester lost the home leg in similar must-win circumstances to today, it led to a seismic shift at Welford Road, with Dean Richards, then director of rugby and a Tigers icon who had led them to successive Heineken Cup victories in 2001 and 2002, being shown the door.
The turnaround in Vesty’s fortunes since that upheaval has been remarkable, because, though still only 24, he admits that when Richards departed, his future at Leicester was in jeopardy. Having signed for Tigers straight from school at Hinckley, the local lad was being groomed to fill Leicester’s black hole position at fly-half, competing against the likes of Andy Goode, Austin Healey, Ramiro Pez and Craig McMullen.
The only hitch was that Vesty wasn’t ready to be a Premiership fly-half. “I played my first game inside Rod Kafer, who was our backs coach and centre, and thought, ‘I can do this’,” he says. “But I wasn’t physically mature enough to take the knocks like a senior pro at 12Å stone (he has since added 2st), and though I always prided myself on making tackles, I got knocked about. Also, all the ball and communication goes through the 10, and it’s a huge step from England Schools A to the Premiership, whereas I’ve thrived on the greater time and space you get at 15.”
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Leicester go into today’s match unbeaten at home for a year, yet mindful that the last club to lower their colours was another French club, Biarritz. However, Vesty reveals that Leicester’s ambition burns as fiercely as ever, with Howard targeting a treble of Heineken Cup, Powergen Cup (they are through to a semi-final against Wasps), and Guinness Premiership, before he returns to Australia this summer.
Vesty says he expects Stade to try to spoil the party, with veteran fly-half Alain Penaud raining “dirty bombs” down on him, but that he’s ready for anything, especially since Slo Progress, which includes hooker George Chuter on vocals and centre Ollie Smith on drums, played their first two live gigs recently. “It was more nerve-wracking than a game,” he says. “We played in front of about 200 in the Welford Road clubhouse, and then we played Arnold Lodge, a secure mental institution.”
Robbie Morris, a Tigers masseur and rock drummer, was impressed. “I don’t want to sound like Phil Spector, but you’ll pay £5 to go into a pub and hear a lot worse. They can play a bit.” Leicester fans are hoping that, when they take the stage as Tigers, Sam Vesty and company leave Stade with exactly the same impression.