Before the new season got underway, everyone associated with Leicester Tigers gathered at the Red Lion pub in Market Harborough. There were players, coaches, kitmen and kitchen staff. Nobody was left off the invite list and the karaoke machine was waiting.
It was a night to tighten bonds that had loosened slightly under the previous regime. Geoff Parling had just landed from Australia and the new head coach encouraged everyone to bring their families along.
Winger Adam Radwan even brought his heavily pregnant wife, warning his medical student team-mate Emeka Ilione that he could be on delivery duties following the young English flanker’s recent placement on a childbirth unit.
It was a step change from the previous regime under Michael Cheika, whose existence in the East Midlands last season always felt somewhat temporary. Spending significant chunks of the campaign living in a hotel created an impression of a transient group destined to go its separate ways.
Leicester are a club who have prided themselves on stalwarts and stability but that has been undermined by a churn of nine head coaches in nine years.
Suddenly, this summer, the clock was no longer ticking on a tranche of club legends in their 30s. It was time for the next generation to pull together as a squad overhaul was forced upon them. A credit card was left behind the bar by the social committee and the revamp began.
Geoff Parling has already stamped his new mindset on the Leicester Tigers players
Young stars like Emeka Ilione are part of a new core at the club after losing a number of stalwarts this summer
Leicester lost last year’s Premiership final by just two points, as Bath edged to victory at Twickenham
‘Josh Mann is an unbelievable singer, so he got on the microphone with (fellow new prop) Tarek Haffar and sung Adele,’ revealed Ilione. ‘Everyone was there, with their families. There’s now a lot bigger focus on the whole person.
‘Having a tight group is better for everyone. There are new lads coming in from across the world, so it’s been good to get to know them informally, as opposed to just seeing them at a game day.
‘If we’re connected as a group and everyone buys in, then it makes things so much easier. If you understand everyone as people then it makes you feel safer in the environment.’
Parling’s contract as Australia forwards coach finished on the day of the Wallabies’ final Test against the Lions in Sydney on August 2. He flew to Melbourne the next day to meet his family and they boarded a long-haul flight to the UK with five suitcases. It was a rushed move into their new home in Leicestershire, bags in hand and a shipping container of belongings still weeks away from arriving.
Parling, who played for the club between 2009 and 2015 and was part of two Premiership title-winning teams, is hoping to lay deeper roots than some of his predecessors.
One of his first big decisions was to hand the captain’s armband to Ollie Chessum, a fellow lock who played in all three Tests for the Lions against Parling’s Wallabies this summer. At the age 25, Chessum has the potential to lead the club for a number of years, forming a new core of senior players including fellow England stars Jack van Poortvliet and Freddie Steward.
‘I spoke to a few players before I took the job, just to see if we got the right feeling about each other, and Ches was one of them,’ said Parling. ‘I’d heard things about him but I wanted to make my own mind up.
‘As soon as I met Ches and saw him in training, I decided he was the guy I wanted to get behind in terms of leading the club. I pulled him up after training on a Friday, he said “yup” then I announced it to the boys on the Tuesday morning.
Ollie Chessum (centre) has taken the captain’s armband this season after impressing Parling
Parling spent six years at Leicester as a player, winning the Premiership title in 2010 and 2013
‘We had 16 leavers last season, lots of experience, so there’s obviously going to be a natural shift in the group. Some of those guys have probably been waiting to step up and I think that’s what I’m seeing.
‘They’re not youngsters anymore. I get some of them are 24 or 25, but if we can keep that nucleus together and add some quality alongside it, then maybe, if they decide to, they’re a group who can really drive the club forward.’
There’s a sizeable hole to fill. Former England trio Dan Cole, Ben Youngs and Mike Brown retired, talismanic captain Julian Montoya joined Top14 side Pau and double World Cup-winning fly-half Handre Pollard went home to South Africa with the Bulls. Those five alone carried with them the weight of more than 500 international caps.
Chessum was a key figure in last season’s up-and-down campaign – which hit its nadir in an 80-12 defeat by Toulouse in January and peaked with the run to the Premiership final – and is not someone who will be blaming coaching changes if results do not go their way.
‘You go back three seasons and we lost a head coach halfway through the year but the boys still made the top four,’ said Chessum, who is primed to make his comeback this weekend against Harlequins at Welford Road. ‘It is frustrating but I’m really excited.
‘Last season Michael came in and we got ourselves into a Premiership final. Geoff has international experience and he’s not too far disconnected with what the club’s about.
‘I’d never write the group off. Losing to Toulouse by nearly 70 points changed something in all of us. We sat in the dressing room at the end of that game for 40 minutes.
‘Cheik was almost in tears. It is so easy at the end of a game to say what went wrong but then the question is, “Why didn’t you fix it?”. There were some harsh words. There were arguments between the boys. They were frustrated, but that changed us.
A crushing 80-12 defeat by Toulouse in January was the low point of Tigers’ season
Handre Pollard, who won the World Cup with the Springboks in 2019 and 2023, has left Leicester to join the Bulls in his homeland
Veteran trio Dan Cole, Mike Brown and Ben Youngs, who have a combined 317 England caps, all retired this summer to leave a void of experience in the team
‘We had some players in the team who had been at the club for a long while, like Dan Cole and Ben Youngs. It was embarrassing for all of us, but they felt they had to make it very clear it was nowhere near good enough. There was a real change in all of us.
‘It is the worst defeat in the club’s history and to say you were part of that is embarrassing, really. It hurts. We are never going to that place again. Regardless of how we prepare, regardless of how we are coached, regardless of tactics, we are never going back there.’
Cole remains at the club, liaising with agents and feeding options to Parling as he finds his feet in his new role as head of recruitment. He will welcome in Wallaby signing James O’Connor on Monday, with hopes the playmaker will be ready to hit the ground running for round three of the PREM – a nice easy baptism of fire in the East Midlands derby at Franklin’s Gardens.
Parling’s messaging to the players has focused on basics, consistency and clarity. ‘Don’t call people out, call them in’, has been one of his principles, encouraging players to hold one another to account without forcing them into their shell.
He was a lineout technician as a player and has already drilled down on the detail. ‘I was quite short for a lock, but I had a pretty wide wingspan that made up for it,’ said Parling. ‘I measured our players – their heights and wingspan – just so I could see who is that little bit longer when they jump.’
With no time for an overseas training camp, the squad settled for a three-day trip to Uppingham School. The players held a talent show, where new signing Orlando Bailey was heckled off the stage following some botched magic tricks and Lewis Chessum, the captain’s younger brother, presented a series of Through the Keyhole-style clips he had filmed around his team-mates’ homes.
‘With Geoff, there’s always a bit of a fun primer,’ Ilione said. ‘We start meetings with a joke before we lock in. We have a thing where players get up and talk about themselves, sharing photos of their families and telling the guys what they play for.
‘Will Hurd told us how he’d been a Tigers fan his whole life. It means so much to him and that gives you an extra “why” in that defensive set. ‘We might do another Through the Keyhole show. Or Olly Cracknell will get up and tells us facts about birdwatching because that’s his thing. Things like that get people relaxed and engaged, switched on before we get into the serious business.’
New signing Orlando Bailey, who scored on his debut at Bristol last Sunday, was heckled off the stage in the club’s impromptu talent show over the summer
Wallabies fly-half James O’Connor is on his way to Welford Road, bringing with him much-needed flair and experience
No-nonsense Cheika had a tendency to be the predominant voice in team meetings. His high-intensity approach helped the club get to last season’s Premiership final, leaving a few casualties along the way.
The club has already seen the defence coach Mike Forshaw leave due to personal reasons, before a ball had been kicked. Parling is giving former centre Anthony Allen an opportunity in the role for now, rather than going to market. Former players Tom Youngs, Leon Lloyd and Marcos Ayerza have been invited in to speak to the team, sharing some of the club’s proud history.
‘When I was in Argentina with the Wallabies, I caught up with Marcos, Gonzalo Camacho and Horacio “Ringo” Agulla,’ Parling said. ‘It shows those connections continue.
‘It’s been great to get those guys in, but I want the guys to know it’s time to realise their own potential as a group, not just think about those guys in the past. It’s just showing how connected the club can be. If you give a lot to the club, then the club can give a lot to you.’
