Look back through the archives and it becomes clear what kind of a player Sam Vesty was. “Probably not the most fashionable,” according to his former Leicester head coach Richard Cockerill, but as the Australian Matt O’Connor, who would later occupy the top job at Welford Road, adds: “He understands the game so well that he makes guys around him play better rugby.”
Vesty, for his part, saw himself as an attacking fly-half and someone “who likes to put some width on the game” but just as important was a resilience in defence, an unrelenting work ethic: “That is Leicester. If you’re not 100%, you’re nowhere. That is bred in every Leicester player.”
