Geoff Parling: Leicester Tigers to ‘evolve’ rather than ‘reset’, says new head coach

For Parling – a former England, British and Irish Lions and Leicester lock who won two Premiership titles with the club during his playing career – this job is his first as a head coach.

He was seen a “wildcard appointment” by former Leicester and England winger Tom Varndell when named as the person to succeed Cheika, who is the only coach in history to win a major club competition in both hemispheres.

Parling has already said he has “a lot of work to do” as Tigers boss, having officially started the role more than two weeks after the squad had begun pre-season training.

“I’m not doing anything overly special at the moment,” Parling said.

“I’m working on the expectations of the group, with how we work and how we train, because how we perform and prepare is generally how we play.

“I’m trying to get the group, with all those leavers and experience leaving, [to ask] how can they step up and drive and how can they connect more?

“And with some change in the coaching team, how we can build clarity in our game, because you have to be clear in how you play and who you are.”

What Parling wants Tigers to be, in what he calls the “the most simplistic terms”, is a team that is “organised and works for each other”.

He continued: “On top of that, you have to have some sort of set-piece to be a Leicester player, you have to enjoy collisions to be a Leicester player and if you bring some stardust on the edge of somewhere, that’s brilliant.

“I will give my players a framework to play, but I want players to make decisions.

“I’m not a coach that says you have to do this every single time, I want players that are aware of themselves, players that are inquisitive and look up and use their eyes and play to what is in front of them.”