{"id":434128,"date":"2026-02-19T12:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/434128\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:29:21","slug":"thriving-at-leicester-tigers-billy-searle-has-at-last-found-his-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/434128\/","title":{"rendered":"Thriving at Leicester Tigers, Billy Searle has at last found his club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This year will mark a decade since Billy Searle<\/a> made his top-flight debut, as a teenager playing for Bristol<\/a> Bears. Since then the fly-half has never stayed at any of his previous seven clubs for longer than two seasons, largely due to circumstances outside of his control.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my decisions to leave clubs have been rugby reasons or forced out of my hands. It\u2019s not been by choice. I don\u2019t want to be moving around like I am,\u201d Searle tells RugbyPass. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change anything in my journey, but obviously there\u2019s been a couple of times where I\u2019d ideally have it a bit smoother than it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leicester<\/a> Tigers, professional club number eight, feels different. Having arrived as one of three new fly-halves in the summer along with Orlando Bailey<\/a> and James O\u2019Connor, Searle came off the bench against Bath<\/a> back in October, kicked the match-winning penalty and has never looked back.<\/p>\n

He took the No 10 shirt the following month and has made nine consecutive starts in the PREM and Europe, with Leicester right in the mix for the playoffs in Geoff Parling\u2019s first season as head coach. Which has all led to Searle being announced on Tuesday as the Gallagher Player of the Month for January.<\/p>\n

That award for Searle unquestionably hits different. Before he arrived at Welford Road in the summer, his last action in the PREM had been in the dying days of Worcester<\/a> Warriors, left along with the rest of Worcester\u2019s squad scrambling for a new club, the start of a road which included brief stops at Bath and Toulouse (more on that later), Biarritz<\/a> and Agen<\/a> and led to Leicester picking up the phone last summer.<\/p>\n

Receiving an accolade like Gallagher player of the month at the age of 29, having been on quite the journey, must feel pretty sweet. Arguably even more so than if Searle had won the award when he first dipped a toe into the league with Bristol and then Wasps.<\/p>\n

\"\"Searle with his PREM player of the month award for January (Photo Premiership Rugby)<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely. I think it\u2019s sort of gone a bit full circle, starting here and going out to France, coming back. And now really finding my feet in the Prem probably for the first time properly,\u201d Searle explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had spells at Wasps<\/a> and Worcester where I was number one, but for a set period of time. Now, I feel really comfortable in my game. It comes off the back of results with Leicester and us doing well as a club. A lot of thanks has to go to the boys and obviously I\u2019m getting the accolades from that award, but it\u2019s down to our team performances in January. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The award] is probably one of those you look back on further down the line when maybe when you\u2019re retired or near the end of your career, and you\u2019ll be really proud of those moments when you\u2019ve consistently played well, getting those little accolades. So it\u2019s obviously great to win that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve always had this sort of ability in me. It\u2019s probably a bit of experience and just knowing my game a little bit better, a bit more game management. But also just timing and getting that right opportunity at the right time and taking it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searle is certainly delivering on that front. His running threat from fly-half makes him stand out compared to other No 10s in the league. He also throws a lethal dummy, as Gloucester<\/a> found out when Searle scored a spectacular solo try in December, beating six defenders to score. Be it for Leicester or recently for England \u2018A\u2019, Searle seems to be playing with no fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel in a great place, really confident in what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m always trying to take the ball to the line, it\u2019s always been my game. If that can free up a bit of space for the boys outside, even better.<\/p>\n

Having Orlando Bailey at inside-centre, another Leicester signing last summer, communicating and organising the rest of the backline gives Searle \u201cthe ability to just go at the line and focus on my role and then hopefully put the ball in space\u201d.<\/p>\n

That approach worked for England \u2018A\u2019, with Searle and Bailey combining again in an eight-try thrashing of an Ireland<\/a> XV. Using a similar system to the senior England<\/a> side, including some strike moves passed down from attack coach Lee Blackett, seemed to work extremely well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a short week, so they want us to express ourselves,\u201d Searle adds, praising the England \u2018A\u2019 and Gloucester backs coach James Lightfoot-Brown\u2019s ideas and perspective.<\/p>\n

\"\"Orlando Bailey and Searle after England \u2018A\u201ds comprehensive victory over an Ireland XV<\/a> at Thomond Park (Photo Evan Treacy Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Searle now has an England \u2018A\u2019 cap to go with his appearances for Cornwall back at the start of his career, winning back-to-back County Championship titles while he was playing for Launceston and then Plymouth Albion. He was only 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was such a young kid back then and was probably learning what I was like. But I know I was just as confident as I am now, probably with a lot to learn. I really enjoyed those times. It put me in good stead, those two years playing men\u2019s rugby, National Two, National One and then those County Championships. When I went to Bristol, it wasn\\\u2019t like a shock playing straight from juniors to men\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

That spell in France, after the collapse of Worcester, seems to have taken his career to a new level. He arrived at Toulouse<\/a> and, unsurprisingly, was blown away by the passion of the fans and the care the club provided helping him to settle in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t speak any French and they looked after me so well off the pitch. The training and the rugby was amazing. My first game away at Bayonne, the fans out there, well it\u2019s just different. They\u2019re so passionate. The first home game, you get off the bus and you\u2019ve got probably 100 metres of fans either side of the rails going nuts, [setting off] flares. It\u2019s just a crazy world out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searle had joined as a World Cup joker to bolster Toulouse\u2019s squad and did not know whether beyond that time period there would be a role for him, so he signed for Biarritz after the first week, eager for some security after the disaster with Worcester. It turned out Toulouse did want to keep him but the ink was dry on his contract. Still, for the final few weeks of his time with Toulouse he trained alongside the likes of Thomas Ramos<\/a> and Antoine Dupont<\/a>, picking their brains.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They\u2019re] superstars but just such normal people when you\u2019re around them, it was amazing. It could only have been good for my game and I think it\u2019s probably showing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training alongside Dupont in particular will make a good tale in the decades to come. \u201cYou don\u2019t really appreciate it when you\u2019re in the moment because you don\u2019t want be that guy. You\u2019ve just got to get your head down and train. He\u2019s just like everyone else. He works hard. He trains well, but he just does the basics so well. Looking back, it\u2019s just such a cool memory to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biarritz, despite amazing supporters, an incredible location on the coast and playing alongside familiar faces in Jonathan Joseph<\/a> and Zach Kibirige<\/a>, was more testing, with rumours about the club\u2019s financial state giving Searle unwelcome flashbacks. \u201cIt was very difficult off the pitch, I can\u2019t lie. Everything going on at the club, rumours they were going to go bust.\u201d<\/p>\n

That financial strain showed in the \u201cvery poor\u201d facilities, with only one club physio \u2013 \u201cwhich is not enough for an elite squad\u201d \u2013 and a bin for an ice bath, taking his own kit to games. By June, as Searle recalls, \u201cthe situation was if you can get a contract elsewhere, we\u2019ll let you go, we\u2019ve got no money. I was like, \u2018this can\u2019t happen again after Worcester\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Searle kicking a penalty for Toulouse against Montpellier<\/a> in the Top 14 (Photo Charly TRIBALLEAU \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

It was practically summer by the time he signed for Agen, staying in the ProD2 on a three-year contract. \u201cLuckily I could get out, but I did feel for the boys [at Biarritz] because there was a period for about a month where we weren\u2019t sure if they were going to keep afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agen gave him stability, playing on a weekly basis, developing his French and his leadership skills. But the aim was always to either get back into the Top 14<\/a> or return home to the PREM. When Leicester made an approach last summer, he could not have been more thrilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was perfect timing for me, and a club like Leicester, I was chomping at the bit for it. It sort of felt like a bit of positivity after the last few years, being forced to move about. Just somewhere I can go and hopefully try and make it my own. And yeah, give it another shot in the Premiership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the Exeter-born Searle has never had an offer from the Chiefs. A RugbyPass article recently linked Bayonne<\/a> with an approach to buy Searle out of the second year of his Leicester contract for next season.<\/p>\n

But you get the impression that he is finally settled, embracing his new club and elated that it has embraced him, letting his game flourish on the field without worrying about his next destination. A club, like Searle hoped for, that he can make his own. So far, so very good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year will mark a decade since Billy Searle made his top-flight debut, as a teenager playing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-434128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}