Latest news with #GeoffParling
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Ollie Chessum cleared for Premiership play-offs and Lions tour as citing dismissed
Ollie Chessum has been cleared to play in the remainder of the Premiership season after a citing against the Leicester Tigers lock was dismissed. A ban had been looming for Chessum after the citing commissioner had picked up a high tackle made in Tigers' defeat to Bath at The Rec. The second row had been given a yellow card by referee Anthony Woodthorpe on the day after consultation with the television match official, but a citing suggested that his sanction may be upgraded to a red. That raised the prospect of the 24-year-old facing a three-match that would have ruled him out of the remainder of his club campaign, including the Premiership final if Leicester make it. Alternately, Chessum may have missed the British and Irish Lions opening encounter with Argentina in Dublin. But the independent disciplinary panel has dismissed a charge of dangerous tackling, deeming that the challenge had not been at a high level of danger and leaving Chessum free to play immediately. He will therefore be able to feature in Leicester's final Premiership game against Newcastle, with Michael Cheika 's men requiring a victory to secure a home semi-final. Cheika will depart at the end of the season with former Tigers lock Geoff Parling set to replace the head coach at Welford Road. Parling will be part of the Wallabies staff during the Lions series, and Chessum admitted last week that his incoming boss had kept communication to a minimum. Chessum said': '[It's been] very brief, just a short message – he congratulated me and he sent us a message about the result the other day. There's been minimal contact but I am looking forward to working with him. 'It is going to be a strange one, he's coming over to Tigers but he is going to be part of the Australia set-up until the end of this tour. It will be a bit of a strange atmosphere but I am looking forward to working with him.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rugby union's bonus points barely change the Premiership table. Is it time for a change?
The business end of the domestic season has arrived and the Premiership and United Rugby Championship tables, as ever, are being carefully scrutinised. Two from Bristol, Sale and Saracens are now vying to make the Premiership playoffs with two games left while the race for the URC top eight will boil down to the final weekend. At which point some know-all will intone the well-worn mantra: bonus points will be crucial. And we'll all nod solemnly and start contemplating how Team X or Team Y can best set about scoring either four tries or losing by seven points or fewer. Without necessarily stopping to think whether the cold, hard mathematics support that supposition – or indeed ever have done. Related: Leicester turn to Geoff Parling as head coach after hunt for Cheika's successor If you go and consult Dr Ellie Nesbitt, a senior lecturer in sports management at Nottingham Trent University, a very different picture emerges. Having crunched the Premiership numbers for the past 25 years, she found bonus points made a major difference to – wait for it – just 2.28% of team positions in the 24 seasons in which they have previously featured. 'Bonus points are not quite irrelevant but they're definitely not making the impact they were probably designed to do,' she says. Hang on. That hard-earned losing away point in the rain at Sale? That valiant fourth try in the dying seconds against Bath? It turns out they barely count in the wider scheme of things. Nesbitt discovered that a whopping 92% of Premiership league placings were totally unaffected by their inclusion. No fewer than 10 of those aforementioned 24 Premiership seasons would have ended up with precisely the same league table had bonus points not been included. And in the 8% of occasions where teams would have finished in another position, it still made little material difference in terms of playoff or Champions Cup qualification. Which, for the curious-minded Nesbitt, prompts wider questions. Hailing from a football background, she only became interested in rugby union because her partner was playing at Burton RFC. Watching his team constantly looking for bonus points set her analytical brain whirring. 'Even in their league they chase them. But then I looked at the data and told them: 'It didn't make any difference.' I take the caveat that it potentially creates more of a spectacle but at the end of a season the difference is so marginal. So then you start to question it. 'What is the point of all of this? Is it time for a refresh?' For me it warrants a look at the effectiveness of bonus points. But no one in rugby union seems to be bothered that they're not making an impact.' The former England international and Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care has announced he will retire from professional rugby at the end of the 2024-25 season. The 38-year-old joined Quins in 2006 and has made 394 appearances for the club, winning two Gallagher Premiership titles and an EPCR Challenge Cup success during his 19-year association. He featured at two World Cups for England during an international career which spanned 16 years, finishing with 101 caps to his name. 'So, it's finally time. Unfortunately, after 19 years of playing for this incredible club, I'm going to be retiring from rugby at the end of the season,' Care said. 'I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting a lad from Leeds come down to this club and feel like home from day one. 'To all the fans. Thank you for everything you've given me and my family. As I said, you brought us into your hearts. You've sung my name louder than it's ever deserved. And I can't really put into words what representing this club and playing in front of you all has meant to me.' PA Media It is a fair cop. Take Sale who have claimed only nine bonus points – the second-lowest in the league – and still sit in the top four. What will almost certainly determine their final placing in relation to the Bears, as ever, will be their respective number of wins. It is more than possible the Sharks will finish ahead of Bristol with six fewer bonus points. So much for attacking rugby paying extra dividends. But let's open our minds up beyond decimal points. Nesbitt's research around competitive balance, incorporated last year into the Leonard Curtis financial report into English club rugby, invites us to contemplate a landscape totally free of such added complications. What if even the slightly tweaked French system – a bonus point for scoring at least three more tries than the opposition – is a hareng rouge? Because what if the extra layer of complexity, rather than enticing more people to enjoy the sport, is actively diluting rugby union's popularity? 'It's weird to me that bonus points only really exist in rugby,' says Nesbitt, suggesting football's relative simplicity is not an insignificant part of its appeal. 'Rugby has so many layers that it's difficult to get into. And when something is difficult to get into – whether that's sport, music or history – people switch off. I don't think rugby has helped itself over the years.' She also wonders aloud if playoff semi-finals represent another well-intentioned idea that might have had its day. The team finishing either first or second in the regular season has gone on to win the Premiership 20 times out of the past 22 editions. Nesbitt's logical academic brain tells her it would be much simpler to save everyone a ton of hassle and just stage a final between the top two sides. Looking further ahead, she argues, the league also needs to work out who, exactly, it is trying to please. At present, amid plans to launch a franchise Premiership model in autumn 2026, she suggests it is being hampered by blurred vision. 'The reason why a franchise system works in America is because they also have the draft and a salary cap. Rugby union seems to have this half European, half American approach but it doesn't seem to work for them either way.' Rather than using bonus points as a comfort blanket, accordingly, her analysis points to a more equitable spread of talent and spending power across the league as being more important. 'The issue with rugby union is that the same patterns occur each year because no changes are made. What are your motivations? What do you want from the league? 'If they want to make it a spectacle and make people excited about rugby, I have no doubt the franchise approach could do that. But it is not necessarily going to fix all their problems.' Plenty for us all to ponder, whether you love bonus points or not, before this season's final push. This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just and follow the instructions.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Tigers pull 'wildcard' with 'very sharp' Parling
He was greeted as a "wildcard appointment", has been admired as a "very sharp student of the game" and is seen by one former team-mate as a "big coup" for Leicester Geoff Parling returns to Tigers in the summer after 10 years away, he will do so as a rookie head coach with a big 41-year-old former England lock, who earned three British & Irish Lions caps while playing for Leicester, where he won two Premiership titles in six years, replaces a coach of world renown in Michael months, Tigers' search for Cheika's successor had the club linked to a multitude of high-profile coaching Francais coach and ex-Harlequins head of rugby Paul Gustard and ex-Munster head coach Graham Rowntree were two former Tigers that were favourites for the job at different times,, external as was ex-England boss Stuart Lancaster and even former New Zealand player and assistant coach Leon assistant Parling, whose entire coaching career to date has been spent working Down Under after he retired as a player in 2018, was the surprise choice."He hadn't been mentioned at all," said former Leicester Tigers and England winger Tom Varndell, whose first spell with Tigers ended in 2009 before Parling moved to Mattioli Woods Welford Road from Newcastle."Geoff is a bit of a wildcard, but I think he is a really good one."It's someone that knows the club, he has been part of successful Tigers teams, has learned his trade as a coach in the southern hemisphere and he will bring a huge amount of experience from that back to Leicester." Former Tigers hooker George Chuter, who played alongside Parling throughout the lock's time at Leicester, says his former team-mate appears to have "come up on the inside rail and snuck in at the end" to get the Parling was not a name being "bandied around" during the months in which speculation around the job swirled, Chuter says getting him back is a "big coup".He describes Parling as a "very intelligent and very sharp" thinker who will have a "deep appreciation for what it takes" to make Tigers successful."Geoff was a player that had to study the game," Chuter told BBC East Midlands Today."If you were to describe someone who maximised their talent, I think that would be Geoff because he wasn't the most naturally gifted rugby player. He looked about 48 years old when he was 25, so he is that sort of guy."He had a really great work ethic, physical skills he worked on but his brain was two or three steps ahead of most other people."That has stood him in good stead as a player and in what is already a pretty successful coaching career. And it certainly will stand him in good stead as he goes into what is a very tough environment in the Premiership." Cheika the 'forever coach' And with Parling being the ninth head coach Tigers have had in nine years, it's arguable there are no more demanding conditions to work under than those in took the job "very last-minute" when fellow Australian Dan McKellar – who, like Parling, left his role as Wallabies assistant when he took over as Tigers head coach in 2023 – got through only one year of a "long-term deal" with the length of Parling's contract has been described the same is something Tigers back-rower Hanro Liebenberg has previously said Leicester need to find in Cheika's himself spoke about "stability and all that business" after Parling's role was announced, but said that trying to deliver a Premiership title this season is the "best thing" he can do to help the incoming that may not be all, as Cheika remains keen to stay in touch with the club after his asked if he would "pick up the phone" if Parling ever had a question in future, Cheika replied: "Yes, of course."And I've said it to the guys here - once I've coached them, I'm coaching them forever. You ask these guys to do things for you all the time, and the respect they show is something that is a big connector."It goes without saying that if that is necessary, then, of course, yes."
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The real Geoff Parling: How new Leicester Tigers head coach will bring back the glory days
It was in the town of Oadby where Geoff Parling first struck up his love affair with Leicester Tigers. The year was 2009 and Parling, who was a fresh-faced lock for Newcastle at the time, had been invited down by the club's then director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Best thing I can do' for Parling is win
Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika says trying to win the Premiership title is the "best thing" he can do for his successor Geoff has Tigers challenging for the league crown in what will be his only season in charge at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, with Leicester second in the table and capable of sealing a play-off spot if they beat leaders Bath on 41, who twice won the Premiership with Tigers in his six years with the club as a player, will leave his role as Australia assistant coach to replace Cheika in the Australia and Argentina head coach Cheika says he will not get distracted by talking publicly about the imminent handover, with his attention only on what can be achieved in his final four weeks in the job."I won't really be talking about any conversations I may have had or not had because that's about preparing the team for whatever is coming next and we are talking about preparing the team for whatever is coming now," 58-year-old Cheika told BBC Radio Leicester."The best thing I can do for the future of the club is to go well for the rest of this year, nothing else. Not ensuring any handover or any of this or any of that, the best thing I can do for the club is to make sure we are playing our best footy and trying to stay in this competition for as long as possible." Leicester have won four of five Premiership games since the competition recommenced after a two-month break for the Six was at the start of the league hiatus that the hugely experienced Cheika - who previously guided NSW Waratahs to Super Rugby success and Leinster to European glory in the Heineken Cup in 2009 - confirmed he would not stay beyond his one-year contract with Parling they will have a rookie head has had two spells working with the Australian national team since 2020, having first moved into coaching with Melbourne Rebels where he retired as a player in says the Tigers job will be a "huge opportunity" for the the former England lock, who also featured for the British and Irish Lions in announcing the appointment of Parling, who will be the ninth head coach to lead Leicester in nine years, Tigers repeatedly said he takes the helm on a long-term asked about how important it would be for Tigers to find stability in the role, Cheika replied: "I think yes, I suppose. But who knows?"The Australian continued by saying he feels he has a part to play in ensuring there are foundations to build on."I get all that, the stability and all that business," he said."But if you just focus on what you are doing now, then that will happen by nature. I can do that by trying to bring my best quality to training every day and help start that stability by being well prepared for training and having good quality training."If I can help try to create that consistency on a day-to-day basis now, I have no doubt the playing roster that is here now will continue that into the future."
