Martin Crowson's five things: Strength in depth key for Leicester Tigers

Martin Crowson looks back at five key points from the weekend's rugby action.

1 Leicester Tigers' LV= Cup win against London Irish on Sunday will largely be forgotten in the grand scheme of things because of the nature of the competition. But while the Exiles' squad was virtually a full-strength team, not a single member of the starting XV sent out by Richard Cockerill has been first-choice in the their position so far this season. That says wonders about the attitude and depth of the Tigers set-up. If Tigers make it through the group stages, I would rate their chances of defending their cup as very high.

2 It was interesting to hear what Dan Bowden said the Maori All Blacks thought of their visit to Leicester last week. Tigers' Kiwi centre said: "They were surprised how vocal the crowd was and how close they are to the pitch at Welford Road. They said the crowd got stuck into them while vocally supporting their own side. They enjoyed the experience but don't lose too many games – so they were not very happy about that."

3 England's defeat by Australia was a real hammer blow. It was a game against a Wallabies side missing several key players on English soil. The odds were hugely stacked in England's favour but they were largely outplayed and out-thought by the Aussies, who were supposed to be there for the taking. Australia's brilliant Michael Hooper also illustrated England's lack of a real ball stealer in a No.7 shirt.

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4 While we are on England, will the people who keep coming up with kits like the horrible purple one worn on Saturday and the black one worn at the World Cup, please stop it. Identity, belonging and national pride is a crucial part of any national side, and that stretches to the traditional colour of their playing jersey. England play in white. Nothing else.

5 There were so many plus-points for Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill from the win against London Irish, it was incredible. Prop Fraser Balmain did a cracking job against England's Alex Corbisiero in the front row, Michael Noone, Richard Thorpe and Brett Deacon smashed seven bells out of Irish at the breakdown, George Ford and Dan Bowden looked sharp, Ed Slater did a superb job running the line-out as a novice and Mat Tait's return from injury continues at pace – quite literally.