{"id":339750,"date":"2025-12-10T16:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339750\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T16:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:21:07","slug":"leicesters-parling-backs-crackdown-on-escort-defenders-as-pretty-positive-leicester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339750\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester\u2019s Parling backs crackdown on escort defenders as \u2018pretty positive\u2019 | Leicester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geoff Parling, the Leicester<\/a> head coach, has defended the crackdown on escort defenders, saying the impact of refereeing changes that promote more kicking has been \u201cpretty positive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Parling\u2019s comments come after Ross Byrne attacked the revised law interpretations<\/a> around contestable kicks on Monday. The Gloucester fly-half argued a potential knock-on effect would be for international coaches to convert second-rows into wings for the next men\u2019s Rugby World Cup in 2027.<\/p>\n

Byrne believes the sport risks become one-dimensional but before the Tigers\u2019 Champions Cup pool meeting with Leinster on Friday, Parling acknowledged World Rugby\u2019s move has led to more kicking, but that had not altered his tactical approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe change has been positive,\u201d Parling said. \u201cI think it\u2019s opened up the game a little bit more. It has meant that teams are more likely to kick. Depending on the outcome you really wanted from World Rugby \u2013 was it to kick more? Well, that is what\u2019s happened. But it\u2019s more open kicking, because you get the tap-backs, and the ball on the floor, and suddenly you\u2019re playing unstructured attack opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re seeing it with some tall wingers at the moment,\u201d Parling added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got Freddie Steward and you get these taller and taller outside backs. That doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no place for some small blokes. You look at Cheslin Kolbe for South Africa, he get up and competes really well. I\u2019m fine with the rule adaptation, I think it\u2019s been pretty positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

On whether he is telling his team to kick more after the law crackdown, Parling said: \u201cNo. I always knew the importance of a kick game. It\u2019s very important wherever you go. It\u2019s the first thing I focused on in the first week I arrived [at Welford Road in the summer]. We\u2019ve not changed anything but we know it\u2019s a very important part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parling also made clear his disappointment at the England lock George Martin\u2019s decision to leave for Saracens, while praising his remaining second-row options. \u201cWe would have liked him to stay but George says he\u2019d like a fresh start,\u201d Parling said. \u201cWe\u2019re disappointed because he\u2019s a quality player when he\u2019s fit. It would have been great to have him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s very physical. He\u2019s hard to replace. What I would say is the guys I\u2019ve got this season have been doing really well. When Ollie Chessum has not been playing, other guys have stepped up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geoff Parling, the Leicester head coach, has defended the crackdown on escort defenders, saying the impact of refereeing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-339750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}