Following the announcement that he has been appointed Leicester Tigers Head Coach from next season on a long-term deal, Geoff Parling spoke to LTTV from Australia.
Speaking about the announcement, Parling said: “I’m excited. I know there is going to be a lot of challenges, and it’s going to be a busy time ahead, but I am excited to come home."
“Leicester is a great club that means a lot to me. When you retire as a player, you probably think that you have one main club, and that would be Tigers for me."
On the decision to leave the Wallabies, he said: “I am very privileged to work with the national team here and ahead of a home World Cup so it had to take something I thought was really attractive at the right club, with the right people and really importantly with real promise in the playing group – and that is what I saw at Leicester."
“The opportunity. As I alluded to earlier, the club it is, the people that are connected to the club, the affection I have for the club, the group of players."
Looking ahead, Parling added: "There are going to be challenges, I know that. Like I said, I want to do things the proper way, try and bring some strong stability."
"I wouldn’t be bringing my family from the other side of the world if that wasn’t the case – it’s not a stepping stone job for me for me this is about getting some good people around me and we build and we build.”
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW.
The 41-year-old is currently an Assistant Coach of Australia’s national team, the Wallabies, and will take up the reins at Leicester Tigers in August after the 2025 British & Irish Lions Series.
As a player, Parling won three Premierships, including two with Tigers, and made more than 300 senior appearances in a professional career that spanned 15 seasons in England, Japan, and Australia. In six seasons at Tigers, he made almost a century of appearances for the club and represented both England and the British & Irish Lions at Test level.
Parling moved straight into coaching, with the Rebels, after retiring as a player, and, in 2020, was recruited by then Wallabies Head Coach Dave Rennie to join his coaching team alongside his role in Melbourne.
At the beginning of 2024, he left the Rebels after new Australian coach Joe Schmidt appointed him to his Wallabies coaching team.
