Geoff Parling

You know, at the end of the day, fans will come along if you can put together a winning team.

And, um, Geoff Parling's had a great start last season.

Um, they've had a pretty ropey spell actually, if we look at it.

Was it one game in the last four, last five that they've won, if we, uh-

And they're not, obviously, all not at home, but, um, you know, the, it is a ropey spell that they're in, if you take last season.

[laughs] So they do need to start turning that around a little bit.

And I think we saw Geoff Parling after the, uh, match at Harlequins that, um, I think it'd be fair to say that he wasn't particularly happy with the performance that had been put together.

So I think we're, we're probably looking at, for a reaction.

I'm trying to think who else.

Jeff Parling stood out to me as someone who was a good line-out forward and a good leader.

And he really maximised what he has.

I mean, again, he wouldn't have been in the Plymouth.

He wasn't good enough to get in the Plymouth team when Andy Perry...

he wasn't there but I wouldn't have picked him had he had been at Plymouth and I had Andy Perry and Will James I would not have Jeff Parling but you know he just really maximised what he had to make the most of his career so I liked him Did Johnny Wilkinson go on that tour? Johnny Wilkinson did not...

I don't know.

I don't know if he did, actually.

So then on Friday evening, I'd gone to the Chinner game between Tigers and the champ team, Chinner.

It sounds as though we might have... done them a big favour because we could have pulled out of that game because we had the the Quinns game on the Friday evening in the Prem Cup it was certainly a big day for the people of Thame where Chinna play and for Chinna the rugby club a very proud club there was about 3,000 people there on Friday night which is which was great they were very grateful that we that we'd come despite the fact that our selection was let's call it men v boys men against boys pretty literally actually because when our team was named I had to check a few of the lads and see where they played some of them aren't even really in the academy Some of them are going off, as Jeff Parling said, some of them are going off to university soon.

Some of them will come into the academy soon.

But they are players that haven't really played together.

Yeah, and they spent some time out in the Red Bulls training academy out in Salzburg in Austria.

And they've got the best of facilities now, which people from Newcastle Falcons never really experienced.

And I remember going back to hearing Jeff Parling talk about at an event not long after he joined us in whatever it was, 2011 or something.

And he said that the difference between the likes of Tigers and Newcastle Falcons as they were, they used to walk out of the training ground to go to the local Tesco's to buy a meal deal sandwich for lunch.

And, you know, you say that.

Well, let's hear it from Geoff Parling, shall we? He gave his thoughts to Adam after the game.

Geoff, commiserations.

How are you feeling after that?

skill they need to keep applying themselves and without giving too many secrets how would you think you're going to go about this competition will you now work in I guess a little bit more experience a little bit more of those regular first teamers as we near that game yeah

next week's team will probably be fairly mixed again but some lads will come back into the team correct and I think It's just trying to get the balance right before we go on.

Geoff Parling there giving his thoughts to Adam.

Gents, you referenced it, the fact that he was not happy.

As you're about to hear, he's had quite the rise to get to this point.

Now, it's often the case that one of the other coaches would take on head coach duties for the Cup in place of Geoff Parling.

But as you're about to hear from Childs, that's not the case for these first two games.

He spoke this week to Adam.

How...

And then mix in with that, Craig Charles' experience, not only his experience of having come through in a completely different way, but his experience of being involved in elite rugby over in South Africa.

How important is it, do you think, that Geoff Parling is sort of finding different kinds of coaches for the different roles?

I think one of the criticisms that certainly fans, certainly some pundits have had of the Tigers over the years has been that sort of insular nature of the Tigers coaching team.

It's a good signing with an eye to the future as well, which is nice to see.

I mean, that's kind of looking at Geoff Parling in terms of saying, well, look, I'm here for a long time, and I'm developing the team not just for this season, but I'm looking for the next season, the next season, and I'm looking to build a dynasty.

So that really does encourage me.

And I think he's a good signing.

I'm not quite sure that would be the term, but that's who he was with.

But look, he was described, you can often tell sometimes by the press release, how these players are going to be used.

And I think that Geoff Parling described him as adding depth to his hooker options.

So perhaps third choice behind him.

So my background is I'm from the North East originally, as people who've heard me on the show before will know.

Stockton on Tees, same as Jeff Parling.

And I...

Started following Tigers before I'd even moved to Leicester.